All I Have Is My Heart
by blackbirdpuzzlepiece
Summary: My rp with dmhello. Nick Duval quickly hits things off with his new British room mate Jeff Sterling. But as time goes by will they become more?
1. Chapter 1

**First chapter of my rp with dmhello. She's been great to write with. She was Jeff. I am Nick. I hope you like it! Don't forget to leave a review :) ~Blackbird**

Jeff was nervous to say the least, not only was this a new school, this was a whole new COUNTRY. The past month has been the most hectic time of his life. His Mom died in a car accident and he wasn`t even given time to processes that she was gone before he was being ripped from his home town of Berkshire, England. Living with his Uncle in middle of nowhere's-vile Ohio was not his choice but he had no family left, his dad dumped his Mother after she found out about his existences, she was only 18. She never blamed him or called him an accident for it though, his Uncle was a different story he did all of the above and then some. Yet now he was "living" with him, but really he was boarding at Dalton Academy for boys. It was a no-brainer he was going there.  
"I`m the headmaster so they will let you in easy, just don`t get use to the favors, plus I can keep an eye on you" Jeff has a sneaking suspicion 'keeping an eye on' meant ' to make sure you don`t go even more h*** than you already are' he was Bi-sexual big deal, in England this was nothing. Well he couldn`t change it no matter how much he wanted to be back home. He took a deep breath and opened the door to dorm 36.  
"Hello?"

Nick turned as he heard the door open. He sucked in a sharp breath. In the door way was a stunning bleach blonde.  
"Hello?" he said. It was obvious by his accent that he was from England. It made the blonde seem even more gorgeous. Nick shook his head. He couldn't develop feelings for this boy. For all Nick knew he was straight, and from the look of it he was Nick's room mate. Plus, who would like someone as dumb as Nick? He couldn't even read right.  
"Hi." Nick said smiling. The blonde smiled back shyly.  
"Are you Nicholas Duval?"  
Nick's smile grew bigger. "That's me. I prefer Nick though."  
The blonde boy smiled brighter, "Jeffrey Sterling, but you can call me Jeff."  
The two boys shook hands, smiling at each other.

"Um, well I`m your new roommate" Jeff hated introductions, he was always so awkward. It was clear the brunette was from the area because he talked with the same likeness as his uncle, who lost his South England ascent and forgot the slang years ago, yet another thing that created a rift between them. "That`s the spare bed right?" he wanted to just crash into it, the time difference, the traveling, and just life in general was wearing him to the bone. He couldn`t though, he still had so much to do to get ready.

"Yeah. Go ahead." Nick said gesturing to the bed. Jeff simply nodded and set his suitcase and his box of trinkets next to the bed and started unpacking. Nick seemed particular interested in the Brit, as all he had been doing is starring. If he was complacently honest it was creeping Jeff out a little he think he did a pretty good job of hiding it though. He was hoping his multitude of fandom merchandise from Harry Potter and Doctor Who would start conversation with him.

"You like Harry Potter?" Nick exclaimed excitedly. He was a huge Harry Potter nerd. Movies, books, fanfiction, A Very Potter Musical, you name it Nick loved it. He was so excited. He'd never really found someone who loved Harry Potter as much as he did. Maybe Jeff was the one?

"Are you bloody kindling me YES! I've been to the Warner Brothers studio tour like, 20 times with my Mum." Jeff was excited he had hoped to find a passionate Potterhead like him at this school, he never dreamed it would be his roommate.

"Wow! I've always wanted to do that!" Nick said. "Who are your favorite ships?" He sat down cross legged on his bed, making himself more comfortable.

"Defiantly Romine the whole series me and my friends where just screaming at them to get together, we got some weird looks from my primary school teacher! That and we tried to board platform 9 3/4 when we took at field trip to Kings Cross, it did work by the way" they both laughed "what house are you in?"

"Raveclaw. Which is odd, because...Well, never mind." Nick said, not wanting Jeff to know how stupid he was, and ruin what was looking to be a very promising friendship.

"Hufflepuff and proud of it, but I guess I could be a ravenpuff because of my writing, but eh- I like food just as much" he got out his yellow and black scarf and wore it on his neck proudly. Nick seemed a bit nervous around him now, why? Nick could tell Jeff was curious about him now. He sighed. He'd have to be more careful next time. Nick didn't tell anyone he was dyslexic. Nobody in Dalton knew. Well, except for the teachers. And the Headmaster.  
"You like Doctor Who, too? Who's your favorite doctor?" asked Nick, hoping to get Jeff's mind off the earlier comment. Jeff raised an eyebrow at Nick, why the suds end change? Usually Jeff was very good at reading people, like books, but he couldn't with him. Well this was going to be fun.  
"That's like asking me if I'm British and David Tennant five words have never crushed me so hard" he put a hand into his heart like he was being stabed in the heart to emphasize his point. He got a laugh out of Nick.

"I have to agree. As great as Matt Smith was David Tennant was the best doctor. Have you seen any of the episodes with Peter Capaldi?" Nick asked, smiling. Jeff just seemed great. They were so much alike. He wondered if he sang? If he did Nick guessed he would have a beautiful voice.

"Um, no I've been meaning to but I- I've been too busy" wasn't a complete lie, he had been busy with the funeral and moving, but truth was he couldn't he use watch it with his Mother now she was all he thought of watching the BBC show. Nick's brow furrowed he could tell Jeff wasn't being completely honest, but really who was he to judge? He hadn't been completely honest with the blonde either. "What kind of music do you like?" Nick asked, deciding to change the subject again. Nick loved music, maybe Jeff did too.

"Mcbusted, Fall Out Boy, Imagine Dragons, Pentatonix, Piano Guys, wow... Don't think my set list could get ANY more hipster" he chuckled.

"Those are all really good. Have you heard any show tunes? Or 80's rock? I find my musical tastes go far and wide. Have you ever heard Metro Station's song Seventeen Forever? It's one of my favorites. Do you sing? I sing a little. I would dance too, but I absolutely suck." Nick said.

"A little, yes, no, and yes" he tried to keep all Nicks rapid-fire question "I`ve been doing dance lessons since I was 5, I could help if you want" he seemed to like Nick and he wanted to help his new mate- er- friend.

"Would you? I want to get into the Warblers this year. But you have to be able to dance. Hey! You should audtion too. We could do it together." Nick said clapping his hands like an excited child. His eyes sparkling happily.

"What`s the warblers? The headmaster mentioned but he never said what it was" He could get use to calling his Uncle 'The Headmaster' he never considered him family anyways. "Speaking of which he wants me to start tomorrow so I`de better start unpacking and getting all the paperwork stuff"

"The warblers are the show choir here at Dalton. There like rock stars. They get almost as much status as the sports teams...I can take to see the Headmaster tomorrow. Nick said. He wanted to help the blonde as much as he could. "Do you want some help unpacking?"

"Yes please, but I`de rather go to the Headmaster alone, I don`t want to bore you with the paperwork unless you want to find out what my blood type is, that`s literally ALL we are doing, shoot me now!" Nick laughed, and stood up to help Jeff unpack. The blonde really was something else.

"Alright. If your sure. Though what is your blood type..just in case."

"O- now don`t go cloning me alright" and with that they got his room ready.

The next morning Nick woke up early to take a shower. Dalton had locker room like bathrooms on each floor. Nick had always woken up early to shower. That way he didn't have to deal with anyone else. He smiled at the sleeping blonde, and headed out the door toward the bathroom. Jeff woke up early that day, his jet-lag was getting better than it had yesterday, but his sleep schedule was still off. He rolled out of bed and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. He noticed Nick was gone, wonder where he went off too, he couldn`t be awake could he? Nick hopped out of the shower, and realized he forgot his clothes in his room. Crap! He wrapped his towel around his waist, and quietly made his way back to room 36 Jeff started to change into his day cloths, he wish he could go in the uniform but that wasn`t going to be given to him until tomorrow, he slipped off his pajamas and slipped into skinny jeans. He was about to open the dresser to find a shirt when he heard the door being opened- CRAP. Nick opened the door, and was slightly shocked to see Jeff up...and shirtless. He felt a blush creep up his cheeks. "Sorry..I forgot my clothes." he stuttered. Jeff inhaled about a liter of air, Nick was in a towel, his hair dripping wet... and he was shirtless

"It`s okay- It`s fine, I`ll just" he turned around facing his dresser and slipped on a random shirt from the drawer as quickly as humanly possible. He covered his eyes so Nick could change, and to hide his blush. Nick dressed faster than he ever had in his life. Once he finished he turned back to Jeff.

"I'm dressed. Shall we go to breakfast?"

"M Hmm" he tried to get over what just happened "It`s early do you think anyone else will be down there?" he wanted to meet some other students before tomorrow, he hated not knowing anyone in his classes.

"Yeah, some of my friends should be down there. They're in the Warblers. One of the many reasons I want to join. You'll like them." Nick said smiling. He picked up his bag, and headed to the door. Jeff followed Nick down the stairs and through the maze that was Dalton's hallways. Everyone looked so proper with the Dalton uniform, he was a hoodie in a sea of blazers. They entered the large cafeteria and Nick summoned him to the far right table.

"Jeff, This is Wes," he pointed to an Asian with a gavel next to him, "David" an african American boy who appeared to be deep in conversation with the Asian. "Trent." he pointed to one with childlike eyes, who waved at them. "And this is Blaine." Nick finished, pointing to the boy with black hair gelled to his head. "Guys, this is Jeff. He's my new room mate."

"Hello everyone" he tried to be as polite as possible, the last thing he needed was to make a bad impression to Nick`s friends, or -god forbid- make an enemy out of one of the Warblers. They all greeted Jeff and Nick sat down next to Blaine.  
"So where are you from, Jeff" Blaine asked He sat next to Nick at the end of the table and answered "Berkshire, England" everyone seem to perk up with his answer was it just him or did he hear a wolf whistle from somewhere across the table? Nick smiled, as his friends continued to talk to Jeff asking him about England and himself. Most of it Nick had already heard before, but then Trent asked,

"So why did you come to Dalton?"

"Family stuff, why`d you ask?" he waited for Trent to answer and hoped he didn`t come back for more explanation 'okay keep it simple, keep it general come on Jeff you can do this' he thought to himself "Well, most people just come to Dalton for a reason." Trent said. "Nick came because of..."  
"Okay! Thanks guys, but Jeff has to meet with the Headmaster." Nick said cutting Trent off. He glared at the boy. No, way he wanted Jeff to know why he was at Dalton. Jeff would leave just like Nick's last room mate. "Are you sure you don't want me to walk you there?"

"No I`m sure, I know how to get to his office, surprisingly. I`ll see you after you get back from class okay?" He smiled and started walking to his Uncle`s office. He dreaded this meeting. Nick frowned. Why didn't Jeff want him to walk him to the Headmaster's office? Did Jeff know the Headmaster somehow? He shrugged, and joined Trent, Wes, and Blaine toward their first class. As the day went by Jeff was never far from Nick's mind. The blonde boy was a constant distraction to Nick all day. Nick had been sad when he didn't see Jeff at lunch, but had shrugged it off assuming he was still with the Headmaster, or maybe someone had come to visit him. When Nick walked into their room at the end of the day he was dead tired. He tossed his bag on the desk, and flopped down on his bed.  
"How was the meeting?" he asked Jeff. "

Long. Very long, he insisted that the whole thing be in his handwriting because he said mine sucked, so I had to answer every single question verbally to him. He even had to ask my birth date, like seriously have he not been paying attention for 15 years-GOD" he was so annoyed and frustrated at him that he didn`t notice the slip until after he yelled it.

"The Headmaster's known you for fifteen years?" Nick asked, looking at Jeff his brows furrowed. Just what was the blonde hiding?

"I- well-He`s" crap, no way out of this one 'good job Sterling you revealed yourself on the second day, Sherlock would not be pleased' he sighed and gave up. "He`s my uncle... please don`t tell anyone" Jeff put his head down so much he had to push his glasses further up the bridge of his nose.

"Why would I tell anyone? It's not my place to tell." Nick said, "Why don't you like your uncle?"

"I just thought people would take advantage of it, like, being my friend so they would never get in trouble like kids do in American T.V." he paused to think how he could word this without talking about his mother`s death "And I don`t like him because he dosn`t like ME. My Mum got pregnant with me when she was 18 so he`s always considered me the result of her little sister`s crappy ex-boyfriend." that wasn`t the complete story, he left out the bit about him being a homophobic prick, or in his case bi-phobic. He didn`t want to explain that until he knew where Nick stood, he was American after all.

"I understand. And as for your uncle well, it's his loss your an amazing person, Jeff. I'm honored that you told me that." he got up, and hugged the blonde. "Your very brave, Jeff." Jeff was surprised by the hug and his statement, brave? Maybe a little in a about a million years.

"Uh thanks" was all he could say. He returned the embrace and Jeff relized He missed being hugged. Nick let go of Jeff, and went over to start on his homework. He took out his history book. They were supposed to read the next three sections. History was the one class Nick didn't share with any of his friends so he had to manage it on his own. He started the first section. After a few minutes he had only read about two sentences. He made a noise of frustration, and promptly broke into tears. Why did everything have to be so hard for him.

"Hey" Jeff went over to Nick in concern "what's wrong?" He looked at Nick tearing up and the book then back to him. "Is it the book? The Fault In Our Stars isn't mentioned is it!

"No!" Nick wailed, full out sobbing now. "It's my history homework, and I can't read it because I'm too stupid!"

"What come on, you? Just because you can't read it doesn't mean you're stupid Nick." He lifted his chin up and wiped the tears off with his hoodie sleeve.

"Yes, it does! My stupid dyslexia! My stupid life! Everything would be some much easier if I was normal or I could just disappear!" Nick said, still crying.

"Don't you dare! Dyslexia never stopped Leonardo di Vinci, or Tomas Edison, or Albert Einstein. You're life can't be that bad because of this compared to mine."

"Oh yeah?" Nick yelled getting frustrated, "Did it ever take you ten minutes to read one sentence of a book? Did you ever have everybody make fun of you for being a slow learner? Did you ever get beat till you were in the hospital just because you like boys?" Nick gasped realizing what he'd just said, and he bolted from the room Jeff shot after him, grabbing him by the wrist half way down the hallway.

"Yes I have, and you know who that was Nick my Uncle who I'm now forced to live with and you want to know why Nicolas because my Mum DIED. Okay and guess what I was in the car when it happened" Jeff started to tear up too "But did he care that I was an orphan now? No all he cares about is me hiding my bisexuality okay. So stop complaining you twat!" Nick stood shocked for a moment before pulling Jeff into a bone crushing hug.

"I'm so sorry Jeffy. I can't imagine that." Jeff collapsed into sobs, so much so that his knees followed shortly after, this was the first time he let someone in so quickly Nick followed Jeff to the floor, and held the boy as he cried, mumuring into his ear trying to calm him down. Jeff calmed down after 10 long minutes, took off his glasses so he could wipe his eyes dry. Then he stood up and they walked back to their dorm room. Nick sighed, and followed Jeff back to their room. He felt bad for yelling. Sometimes he just couldn't seem to control himself. He sighed. Jeff would probably have switched dorms by tomorrow. It had been nice getting to know someone. Nick changed into his pajamas, and crawled in bed.  
"Good-night." He said quietly before he closed his eyes.

"Night Nicky, and thank you- for everything today" he sat on the bed, updated some of his old England friends like Carrie and Pete on how he was doing (finally). The next morning Nick made sure to grab his clothes before he went to the shower. He came back dressed, and ready to go. He looked over at Jeff, and smiled.  
"Jeffy, wake up." he said shaking him slightly. Jeff moaned and sat up and tiredly smiled at Nick. Today was his first day so he had to be alert and focused but it was quite hard when his brain was screaming 'You will be mush now' he opened the door and found his uniform hung on the outside door nob, now how does he put this on again? Nick couldn't help, but giggle when he saw Jeff struggling with his tie. "Here let me help." he said. He grabbed the tie, and fixed it. Then his eyes caught Jeff's. The blond didn`t know what to do, but he got lost in the the hazel swirl that was Nick`s eyes.

"Thank you" there eyes were still locked. Nick broke the gave, blushing. He cleared his throat.

"We should get down to breakfast."

"Yeah, okay" Jeff said and opened the door for Nick and they headed out for his first day. At breakfast everyone kept looking at Nick and Jeff. It was making Nick a bit uneasy. Finally he couldn't stand it anymore.  
"Guys, what is the big deal?Why do you keep looking at us?" Nick asked.  
"You two are just so cute!" said Trent. Everyone else nodded. Trent turned to Jeff. "Has he kissed you yet?" Nick felt his face turn bright red.

"Bloody he- we have known each other for literally two days, is this how fast American relationship go?" Jeff said shocked and slightly blushing and confused with Trent

"Not usually." Blaine said, "But we all heard you crying in the hallway last night, and Nick was there. Then you were later than normal for breakfast."

"Y-you heard how much of that exactly?" now he was worried if someone he couldn't trust knew about his Uncle he was royalty screwed

"We just heard crying." Wes said.  
"Yeah. We wouldn't evesdrop on your private conversation." David said. "Whatever you were talking about was between you and Nick. We don't need to know."  
Nick smiled softly. He had good friends. Crazy and a bit misguided, but good. Now that Jeff was done with his heart attack

"Thanks-for that and we were late because I had trouble with the uniform, seriously how do you manage it putting this thing on every day?" They chuckled along with Nick

"You get better." said Nick said. The bell rang signalling the start of classes. "See you in class Jeff." "Buy guys" he rushed to the office to get his time table- or as they called it schedule- he had World History, then a study hall he figured that`s when he got his tutoring to ketch up on the year, Science, Math, then art for today. He would worry about the his B schedule tomorrow. Nick walked into his math class, and smiled when he saw Jeff, talking with the teacher. This was the first class he'd had all day with the blonde, and he hoped it wouldn't be the last.

"Hey, Jeff." he said smiling.

"Hey Nick" Before he could say more he was cut off by bell, and the teacher (who, in Jeff`s opinion was louder than the bell). Nick took his seat, and Jeff sat next to him. Nick felt his face heat up. He hadn't been this close to Jeff since this morning. The teacher started the lessons. Jeff didn`t struggle with much of the lesson, he knew this stuff already. He looked at Nick who looked fine, I guess his dyslexia was fine with numbers. He took a look around the classroom, most of the Warblers were here from this morning, say for the black kid, and the Asian one, Dave and Wes, he reminded himself. Gosh he sucked at names When Nick got back to their room he was to tired to do his homework. One of the few things that were okay about his dyslexia was that he had a couple extra days to get his homework turned in. He had made everything look fine when he sat next to Jeff in math, but he would have to ask Blaine for help later. He didn't want to bother Jeff, after all. He looked up as the door opened,

"Hey Jeff. How was your day?"

"A little hectic with all the introductions, but so far i`m liking the school. Most of my teachers I like, say for a few. My tutors really nice as well, she`s a bit of a rambler though, so I just kind of texted Carrie under the table until she was done" he laughed with the last part of his statement, he couldn`t help it, with all the random crap the two pulled. Nick smiled.

"Is Carrie one of your friends from England?"

"Yeah she lived in the flat across from me so we were close"

"Did you have any other friends there? You can tell me anything Jeff. Really. I am your shoulder to cry on. Just promise you'll be the same for me." Nick said smiling at the blonde.

"Defiantly, I promise. Well Carrie`s the main one. She was my neighbor, and my dancing and theater partner. Also my and first and only girlfriend, then theirs Tom Joseph call him T.J. if you want, but he will kill you." Nick chuckled "And Pete, those are the ones I`ll mention the most I guess"

"I bet you miss them a lot." Nick said, sympathetically. He knew what it was like to miss your friends. Although his were only a few hours away, not across an ocean.

"Yeah, but at least I can still talk with them, and I have you so it`s not like I`m lonely"

"Awww. Thanks Jeffy." Nick winked, playfully at Jeff. There was a moment of silence. "Jeff, would you...maybe...help me...with the math lesson from today?" Nick said slowly. He looked at Jeff, pleadingly.

"Sure, I have to admit the teacher did explain it a bit weird, but basically" He took out the homework from that day so he could explain it better "What you do is..." he explained the way he remember it being taught from last year.


	2. Chapter 2

A few weeks later a routine had been established for Nick. He would wake up, get ready, wake up Jeff, they would go to breakfast, classes, then back to their room, they worked on their homework, then hung out for a while before curfew. Nick was starting to feel more for the blonde than friendship. Sure, he'd had a little crush on Jeff at first, but this was different. Nick was starting to like Jeff, as more than a friend, and if he was honest he was kind of scared. Nick walked in later than usual that day, but Jeff was too focused on his assignment for his journalism class, he could not think of a good topic for his life. He wanted to impress the teacher with his first work

"Oi, where`ve you been?" He said looking up from his writing, he had complete writers much so that there was about a dozen crumpled pieces of paper in (and around) the trash bin.

"Just out." Nick said evasively. He had been talking to Blaine about his growing feelings for Jeff. Blaine had told him to just tell Jeff, to which Nick had asked him if he was crazy, and then stormed off. He had then gone to the gym to box, and had stayed there, until the janitor kicked him out.

"What happened to your hands" He said back in shock and concern they were bruised and cut in some places he got the first aid kit. "Never took you as a fighter"

"Well, I don't normal take out my anger by yelling at cute Brits who happen to share a room with me." Nick said sarcastically, before he could think about what he was saying.

"Thanks" He just giggled and figured he was frustrated with his Dyslexia again, he just wrapped his hands up and got back to work "Oh and by the way I found the history text book on Audible, website should still be up" he pointed to his laptop and began chewing his pencil. Nick's jaw dropped. No one had ever made that much of an effort to help him. Yes, his parents were sympathetic, but there wasn't a lot they could do. And the teachers could only do so much too.

"Thanks." he said quietly, moving to Jeff's laptop. Trying to keep the tears at bay.

"Yeah they were having a two-for-one thing, so I got that and Divergent, I mean I was going to get it anyways since it`s my Uncle`s account and he uses it for jack, so yeah" he smiled then aimed his latest fail of a ruff draft near the trash.

"What are you working on that's got all these papers around?" Nick asked, finally noticing the papers all over the room.

"Sorry, it`s my rough draft for my Journalism class, we are suppose to do a paper and I can`t think of a good topic and just-" he put a pillow to his face and let out a frustrating sequel "I hate writer`s block" "Why don't you write about your feelings on moving to America?" Nick asked trying to help the boy. He knew Jeff normally had no trouble with writing assignments, and so he was probably extremely frustrated. "Or if you don't like that we could just take a break and watch Pirates of the Caribbean. Or we could do both." Nick said with a shrug.

"Both, defiantly both" he sat next to Nick when watching the movie and finished his draft in about 15 minutes into it

"Jeff, will you teach me how to dance?" Nick asked the next day as they were sitting in their room after class. Warbler audtions were in a couple weeks, and Nick wanted to be ready.

"Sure" he closed his textbook and made room on the floor for some room to move around "what song are you singing? May give me an idea on what you need to learn.

" Well, I kind of had a couple that I was thinking of. Either Cough Syrup by young the giant or Iris by the Goo goo Dolls. What do you think? They're both kind of slow songs, but they mean a lot to me." Nick said, kind of nervous.

"Those are both really good, but as much as I love 'Iris' it's a bit too instrumental and this is an a Cappela group right? Wouldn't you just be sitting there most of the time?"

"True. I guess I'll go with Cough Syrup. Thanks Jeff." he spontaneously pulled the blonde into a hug. "So, what should I do for dancing?" He asked after he pulled away.

"I'll show you some of the basics, but after they perform tomorrow I'll have a batter idea if what there're looking for." He showed Nick some simple steps to go along with the beat of the song. After they were done Nick smiled,

"Thanks Jeffy." he said. After a moment he said, "Can I use your laptop for the history book audio again?"

"We really need to get this on your iPod" He chuckled as he gave it to Nick and took out "Eleanor and Park" to pass the time until Nick was done and they could go to bed. Nick finished listening to the section, and set the laptop on Jeff's desk. The blonde boy had fallen asleep. Nick smiled, and grabbed the book he had been reading. He put a book mark in the page, and closed the book setting it on the desk. He covered Jeff up, and took off his glasses. Very carefully, Nick kissed the blonde's forehead, before turning off the light, and climbing into his own bed. Jeff got up quite confused, he remembered drifting off last night, but the blanket over him, glasses put away, and the marked and put away book was not in his memory. Plus he dreamed last night Nick kissed him... just WHAT? He got up quickly and prepared for the day, the Warblers where going to preform today and according to Blaine the whole school shuts down as a result- he seriously doubted that- but he was still excited In the middle of math class, it was announced that the Warblers were performing. Nick and Jeff ran out the door, and to the Senior Commons. The Warblers stood there, Nick noticed that Blaine was missing. Just then Blaine ran in dragging a boy behind him. It was obvious the boy was trying to copy their uniform. They started preforming Teenage Dream. Nick rolled his eyes. Blaine and his Katy Perry. After the performance was over, Nick and Jeff were walking to their next class.

"So, will you auditon too now?" he asked Jeff.

"Yes!" he exclaimed excitedly "They're amazing, singing wise, they are more complicated with dancing moves in competitions right? Because seriously" he imitated the side-step-then-spin move they did most of the song.

"I don't know. i've never gone to one of the competitions." nick said. "What song are you gonna do?" "It`s a surprise" he said grinning, he had this idea for a while but now he was really going through with it. He had a few orininal songs in his note book, and one was dedicated to a certain brunette.

"Okay, fine don't tell me." Nick pouted playfully. "I have boxing this afternoon so you'll have the room to your self for a while."

"Okay, see you later Nicky" he bolted to his class grinning like crazy, this was going to be perfect. The day of their audtion Nick was extremely nervous. As they waited to be called in he was pacing back and forth, talking with Jeff.

"What if I mess up? What if I trip?" He gasped, and turned to look at Jeff, "What if they laugh at me?!" "They`re not going to laugh at you Nick, they are your friends, and if you mess up, you can always try again. It`s not like this is not your one shot to join them. You`ve been practicing for weeks, you`ll do fine." he noticed the boy with the fake uniform who Blaine dragged in last performance "I spy a spy." Nick frowned at Jeff's words, but then noticed the boy.

"Should we say something?" he asked Jeff. "Nah, his uniform`s was a give away enough, they should know by now. We have enough to worry about." someone announced they were starting auditions. Jeff walked into the practice room nervously followed by Nick. Wes, David, and Thad sat at there seats on the council. They called the first name, and the guy stood up, and sang. It continued in this fashion, until

"Nick Duval." Wes said.

"Wish me luck." Nick whispered to Jeff as he stood up. Jeff smiled and mouthed the words 'You don`t need it' and gave him a thumbs up. Nick started singing and did Jeff mention Nick Duval had the sexiest voice ever? BECAUSE HOLY CRAP.

Life's too short to even care at all, oh  
I'm losing my mind losing my mind losing control, oh oh  
These fishes in the sea they're staring at me oh oh  
Oh oh oh oh  
A wet world aches for a beat of a drum  
Oh

If I could find a way to see this straight  
I'd run away  
To some fortune that I, I should have found by now

I'm waiting for this cough syrup to come down, come down.

Life's too short to even care at all, oh, oh  
I'm coming up now, coming up now out of the blue, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh  
These zombies in the park they're looking for my heart, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh  
A dark world aches for a splash of the sun, oh, oh

If I could find a way to see this straight  
I'd run away  
To some fortune that I, I should have found by now

And so I run now to the things they said could restore me  
Restore life the way it should be  
I'm waiting for this cough syrup to come down

Life's too short to even care at all, oh, oh  
I'm losing my mind losing my mind losing control

If I could find a way to see this straight  
I'd run away  
To some fortune that I, I should have found by now

So I run now to the things they said could restore me  
Restore life the way it should be  
I'm waiting for this cough syrup to come down

One more spoon of cough syrup now, whoa._[x2]_

The next day Nick and Jeff went back to the Warbler room. They had ended up running out of time for Jeff to audtion yesterday so he was supposed to come in. Nick, being the good friend he was, came with him. Jeff name was called and he stood in fount of the three council members Dave and Wes he met, Thad he never got the pleasure.  
"What will you be singing Jeff" Wes asked with gavel in hand (big surprise)  
"An original" he responded proudly

Nick's eyebrows rose he didn't know that Jeff wrote music. Jeff started out;

Today I feel like running naked through your street  
To get your attention  
(To get your attention)  
Whoa-oh-oh  
(Whoa-oh-oh)  
I broke up with my girl so tell me where to meet  
Oh, did I mention?  
(Oh, did I mention?)  
Whoa-oh-oh  
(Whoa-oh-oh)

I dream on, dream about you  
What can I do to make you feel all right?  
Baby I don't want to see you cry, no-oh

I want to see you smile  
I want to see you smile

Today I feel like blowing all my cash on you  
I'd buy you anything  
(I'd buy you anything)  
Until I'm broke  
(Until I'm broke broke)  
Today I want to turn your skies from gray to blue  
And if it rains on you  
I'll be your coat  
Whoa-oh-oh

I dream on, dream about you  
What can I do to make you feel all right?  
Baby, I don't want to see you cry, no-oh

I want to see you smile  
I want to see you smile

Let me take your picture, baby  
I'll save it for a rainy day  
I don't need much  
I guess I'm just old fashioned in that way  
So on the count of three, let's see you  
1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, 3!

Smile  
(I wanna make you smile yeah oh oh)  
I wanna see you smile (oh yeah)  
I wanna see you smile

It's the things you do  
I wanna make you smile

Nick was speechless. The song was amazing. Happy, and fun, completely Jeff. But what shocked Nick the most was that Jeff had seemed to be singing to him.  
"Thank-you, Jeff. We will let you know our descion." Wes said. Jeff theater teacher always said to keep his eyes on his audience, which at the moment was the council but he glanced at Nick when possible. He wanted to make it clear that this was for him. He finished with a smile of his own. Afters Wes' bland statement Nick and Jeff left together to their room

Once they were back in there room, Nick was feeling even more confused. Why would Jeff write a song for him? What did it mean?

"Hey Jeff." He said softly, deciding to take a chance.

"Yeah Nicky" he answered. He knew Nick would want an explanation to the song, problem was, he didn't have one.

"Did you write that song for me?" Nick asked, 'Maybe I should've been a Gryffindor.' he thought.

"You inspired it, I really do want to see you smile Nicky, it's the nicest smile I've seen on a boy." He was genially telling the truth.

Nick blushed. Nobody had ever really complemented him before. Sure, his mom had said he looked nice, but she was his mom.

"Thanks." he said, quietly. Their was a moment of awkward silence. "We should go somewhere." Nick said jumping up, a mischieveous twinkle in his eyes.

Jeff giggled "Where?" Nick was never this spontaneous.

"Well, there's a great coffee place in Lima. Best coffee you'll ever have. Or if you feel like being all British on me, they have tea too." Nick said teasingly.

"Okay, and I have been curious to see what American chocolate and coffee tastes like, apparently the recipe is different."

"Yay! Let's go Jeffy!" Nick said, practically bouncing out the door. Two hours later they arrived at the Lima Bean.

"Lima Bean, punny" he said as they entered the rather small and cozy building.

As they waited in line Nick told Jeff all about the different kinds of coffee. "So which do you think you'll get? I usually get a mocha."

"Wow that's a lot, um I guess I'll order that if you like it it can't be that terrible." If Jeff was honest with himself, he really didn't like coffie all that much, he was too much in to sweets.  
A few minutes in and Jeff noticed a group of boys staring at them, and they didn't look very nice.

Nick felt eyes watching them. He turned and saw Trevor, his bully from his old school, along with his friends. "Let's get out of here, Jeff." he said nervously standing up.

"Okay" he grabbed his coffie and headed to the door and hoped that they could leave the shop unnoticed, kind if hard to do when your wearing a blazer.  
"This your boyfriend Duval?" Crap; he even sounded like a j***.

Nick turned to Trevor.  
"Leave us alone, Trevor." he said, quietly. Even though Nick boxed quite a bot at Dalton, it was always just to relieve stress and anger. Never for practice as self-defense. Trevor scared Nick, and Nick couldn't do anything about it.  
"Why, Princess? Did I ruin your night?" Trevor asked, stepping closer to Nick. Nick cowered as Trevor moved even closer.

Jeff steped in between Nick and him, he had a pretty good guess who this was and he was not happy "Leave him alone, or do the two brain cells you rub together not understand that fraise hmm?" He tried to make himself look more intimidating, keeping his head up, chest puffed up, useing his height as an advantage it seemed to work a little.

Nick's jaw dropped did Jeff really just say that? Did he not understand who this was? "Jeff..." he whispered warningly, as Trevor's hands balled into fists, and he took a step toward Jeff.

Jeff didn't react, even though inside he was terrified. He just looked down on the boy, who was obviously irritated. The boy tried to throw a punch but Jeff just grabbed his hand and pulled it to the middle of his back. Nick gasped. He didn't know what to think. Jeff was standing up to Trevor! But why? Nick decided to think about it later.

"Come on Nick, let's go" he said and he led the shell shocked boy out the door, away from that j***.

The drive back to Dalton was quiet. Nick was to wrapped up in his thoughts to try and make conversation. Why had Jeff defended him? Jeff felt like he did something wrong, why was Nick not talking to him? "Are you mad?"

Nick's eye brows rose. Jeff thought he was mad at him! "No!" he was quick to say, "I just...no one's ever stood up for me before. Not even my parents. They always say to just ignore it. And if nobody I know will do it why would you? I've only known you a few weeks. I'm very proud to known you Jeff." There was a moment of silence. "I could never be mad at you."

Jeff let out a relieved breath "Thank`s, and trust me what I did surprised me too, it`s just, you looked so scarred. I couldn`t just sit there and let hurt you even more." Nick looked even more surprised now "He is the guy that put you in the hospital, right?"

He was back at his old high school. Trevor was coming at him, his hands balled into fists. "You know Nick, people like you don't deserve to live." His fist raised. "No! Please!" Nick screamed.

"Nicky" Jeff was standing over him"It was dream Nick, you`re okay" he pulled him into a hug

Nick sobbed into Jeff's chest. It had all been so real. He hadn't had a nightmare about Trevor in so long. "Will you please sleep here, Jeffy?"

"Of course" he laid down next to him and put the covers over them both "he can't hurt you anymore Nicky, I'm here now" he asked holding onto the other boy as if he was the dream.

The next morning Nick went to get out of bed, but found that he couldn't. Puzzled, he rolled over, and found himself face to face with Jeff. He then realized that Jeff's arms were wrapped around him. Nick squeaked. "Jeff," he started gently shaking him. "Jeffy. Get up."

"I'm up" he got to his bed and slipped on his glasses. He grabbed his cloths and they walked to the shower room together for once.

The day went by without a hitch for Nick. He did his classes, and Jeff helped him with the homework later. But that night was a different story. Nick woke up in a cold sweat from a nightmare about Trevor. Jeff had slept through it, suprisingly. Nick climbed out of bed, and into Jeff's bed. "Goodnight, Jeff." he said cuddling up to Jeff.

Jeff woke up shaking the flash backs to the accident still haven't stopped even after two months. He noticed Nick next to him and covered his mouth and put hus knees to his chest so he wouldn't wake him up.

Nick felt Jeff stir next to him. He opened his eyes, and saw Jeff with his knees to his chest. "Jeffy what's wrong?"

"Flash back- I'll be okay on a minute- I know how this goes."

Nick took the blonde in his arms, and started petting his hair. "Do these happen often, Jeffy?"

He nodded "I want her back" the tears spiled silently

"I know, honey. I know." Nick said stroking his hair. "Do you want me to stay here?"

"Please" he took deep breaths until the shock wore off "I'm glad tomorrow's Saturday Er-" looked at the clock "today"

Nick settled down next to Jeff, and played with his hair until he fell asleep. He looked down at the blonde boy smiling sadly. Nick wished he could save Jeff from the pain. He wished he could protect him from the world, and anything that might hurt him. Nick would finally admit it to himself. He was falling in love with Jeff Sterling.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Jeff felt warm waking up. He opened his eyes to Nick cradling him in his sleep. He tried to move but it was no use he had his arms around his waist and their legs where tangled. Nick started to stir and he pressed his leg right against his morning wood- Great.

Nick blinked slowly, waking up. He felt something against his leg, and blushed when he realized what it was. He quickly moved his leg, and mumbled "Sorry." Nick was still half asleep, maybe he won't remember this whole thing. Jeff was still pretty tired too, the night had been a long one. Hopefully some more will take care of his little problem as well. He dosed off in minutes. Nick noticed that Jeff had fallen back to sleep. He quietly slipped out of the bed, and went to get ready for the day.

Nick wasn't in the room when Jeff woke up a second time, it was Saturday, were could be be? This wasn't the weekend he was going home was it? He decided to take advantage of having the room to himself and take care of his issue that caused so much trouble this morning.

Nick had forgotten his clothes. AGAIN! He stopped at the door to there room. He pressed his ear to the door that sounded like...moaning? He flushed, when he remembered what had prompted him to get up this morning. Apparently Jeff had woken up since then. Another moan came from the dorm room, and Nick decided it to just knock on the door. Jeff was too distracted to hear the knock on the door, he finished with Nick's name on his lips, he'd be lying if he said he wasn't head over heals for his roommate, and puberty was not helping him at all.

Nick gasped, when Jeff didn't answer Nick had opened the door. The he heard Jeff say his name. Did Jeff maybe, like Nick too?

Jeff bolted to the bathroom with a change of clothes and cleaned himself up. He changed and flushed the toilet and came out the bathroom to find Nick changed and showered.

"Hey thought you mightn't gone to your parents house already it's late." He usually was in Lima by noon and it was one now.

"Yeah. They had something come up and told me that we'd have to wait till next week." Nick said, awkwardly. He couldn't help, but think about what he'd almost walked in on. He wondered what it meant. He was tempted to ask Jeff about it, but he didn't really know how to bring it up.

Nick acted even more awkward than usual 'great he knows' he thought to himself 'Just act casual like nothing happened come on your an actor you can do that'

The day itself was rather awkward. Nick couldn't talk to Jeff like normal, so they both just quietly went about they're business. Finally, after dinner Nick was fed up with it all. So, he decided to have some courage. (Really he should've been in Gryffindor.) and said, "Jeff, I heard this morning."

Jeff felt like a load of bricks just hit him. He put his hand to his face "Okay you deserve an explanation so here it goes, Nick your the most wonderful person I met, you've helped me with so much and I just- I" he was stuttering now "I fancy you a lot okay, like a lot, LOT" he waited for Nick say something, anything.

Nick sat there in shock. Jeff liked him! He tried to think of how to tell Jeff he liked him too. "Jeff, I...I...I like you too." he finally stuttered out.

Jeff sprang and hugged him, he never wanted to let go again.

"Jeffy, your kind of squishing me." Nick said, smiling. Jeff liked him back! He still couldn't quite wrap his head around it.

He let go of Nick sheepishly "Sorry" he was still grinning like an idiot then he heard a knock on the door.

"Nick Jeff come on the new warbler list is posted" it was Trent.

Nick got up, and held out his hand to Jeff. "Shall we Mr. Sterling?" he asked in a fancy voice.

"After you Mr. Duval" he took his hand and he led him to the warbler hallway.

They ran to the paper posted on the far wall. "We both made it, Jeffy!" He and Nick started jumping in each others arms. He looked at his name one more time across from the names was something they needed to improve on he laughed when he saw his 'needs to be more show choir appropriate'

"Seriously I said naked ONCE"

Nick laughed. "I liked the song Jeffy." He shyly kissed the blonde's cheek. Jeff blushed and squeezed his hand.

"Awww" they turned around to see Blaine, Trent, and the Council.

"Did you two finally get together?" Trent squealed.

"Um..." Nick looked at Jeff unsure of the answer himself.

"We admitted we fancied each other... So I guess." He looked at Nick who just smiled:

"Fancied?" Thad jokingly murmured to Dave and Jeff looked down at his feet and started clicking them together.

"Guys! Your upsetting him!" Nick scolded. He hugged Jeff, "They didn't mean anything by it. They're just being idiots!" He glared at Thad.

Jeff just stood there in shock "I know, come on let's get back" they walked down the hallway back to their dorm "Well someone flew off the handle" he's never saw Nick snap at his friends before.

"Sorry!" Nick blushed, "It's just. I don't want anything to hurt you." He looked at his feet.

"Their my friends Nick, I know they're not making fun of me... And I do talk weird."

"I know. I'm sorry. Sometimes I forget that Dalton isn't my old school." Nick said. He was silent for a minute before asking, "Did you mean what you said out there? About us being together?"

"Yes, I've wanted this for weeks, but I can ask formally Nick Duval will you be my boyfriend?"

"Yes! Of course Jeffy! I've liked you since you asked be if I was Nicholas Duval." Nick said, bouncing up, and down. "But I want to ask you this first, Jeff Sterling will you go on a date with me?"

"Yes Love, I will" he smiled and opened the door for his boyfriend... He could get use to this.

Nick blushed when Jeff called him love. He walked out the door, and they headed for Nick's car. Jeff noticed it was chiller than he was expecting his breath was even solidifying, he pretended he was a train for a second (or two) "So what are we going to do?" he said as they got in to the car, man he wished he could drive.

"I figured we could go back to my house, and I could make us dinner. My parents were out for the weekend that's why I wasn't going home." He noticed that Jeff was looking at the steering wheel. He smiled, his boyfriend was so adorable. "Jeffy, do you want me to teach you to drive?"

"Okay" he said "Wait you mean now?"

"Sure, why not." Nick said with a shrug, he climbed out, and walked around to the passenger's side.

Jeff new the basics, like the gas and the brake and which gears did what (Which really didn't help him with an automatic) there was a few times Jeff reached for stick shift and remembered this car didn't have it. "It's weird having the steering wheel on this side of the car."

Nick chuckled. "It'll take some getting used to, but you'll be fine."

"That and Miles" he said Nick laughed, he tried to keep the feeling light, but his hands were starting to shake from memories. Nick noticed that Jeff was starting to shake.

"Jeff, what's wrong?" he asked. This seemed like more than just nerves.

"I'm okay- can we stop now" he didn't want Nick concerned at dinner "I'm hungry"

"Okay." Nick frowned. He could tell Jeff didn't want to talk about it now. He would ask later. They pulled into the driveway of the Duval house. "Here we are home sweet home."

Jeff gawked at how big it was "This is your house- you live here. This is as big as my flat building" Nick unlocked the door to his house and led him into the kitchen, yep huge.

"Yeah, I'd much prefer a smaller house. After all it's just me, mom, dad, and Nikki, but dad insisted on this house." Nick said, as he looked for the things he needed for dinner.

"Who's Nikki?" He asked helping Nick.

"My little sister. She's ten." Nick said.

"What's it like, having a sibling?"

"Nice, but annoying at times. She's sweet, but we have our differences. We fought a lot when we were younger, but we've gotten better. What's it like being an only child?" he asked, as he put the noodles, in the water.

"Lonely at times, but my Mum and me were close plus Carrie was kind of my sibling, so it helped."

"You have to introduce me to Carrie. I've heard to much about her to not meet her." Nick said, smiling at Jeff. He turned out the stove, and drained the noodles. "I hope spaghetti is okay. It's one of the things I can actually cook."

"Okay, I'll be kind of hard with the time difference and Le Mis, but I'll see if I can snag a Skype call but late" he slipped his hands around his waist "Right now it's just you and me."

Nick blushed. He wasn't used to having this much attention. "The spaghetti's done." he said smiling shyly.

"Now we just have figure out what else to do." They put together rolls with the spaghetti they ate then decided to watch a movie. They decided to have another Pirates marathon. Nick knew they were Jeff's favorite. Nick snuggled into Jeff's chest, as the movie started.

They finished their marathon "It's late" Jeff looked at the clock, it was about two in the morning "Where's your room?" He asked with a yawn. Nick gave him a spare set of pjs which didn't fit him quite right as his shoulders and waist line were constantly being exposed.

"Sorry, about the pj's. Your just too tall." Nick said teasingly. They climbed into bed.

"Nicholas?" Jeff stirred and opened his eyes, there he saw Nick's Mother standing over them. He looked down to see Nick's hand halfway up his shirt.

Nick turned bright red "Mom! I thought you weren't coming back till tomorrow!"

"Things didn't work out." Mrs. Duval said, "Who's this Nicholas?"

"Um...this is Jeff. He's my..." Nick trailed off. How do you tell your mom you have a boyfriend?

"I'm his roommate, Jeff Sterling, it's nice to meet you ma'am." He didn't know if Nick was out to his parents or not, so he kept it general.

"Oh yeah, Jeff we've heard about you.

"He's also my boyfriend." Nick said finally finding his voice.

Mrs. Duval's eyes lit up. "Oh, Nicky! I'm so happy for you baby!" she said pulling first Nick then Jeff into a bone crushing hug.

"Well I was going to ask if you your parents but, never mind." Nick smiled

"So, breakfast?" Mrs. Duval asked

Nick walked downstairs hand in hand with Jeff. He had a big smile on his face he just couldn't get rid of.

"Nick!" Nick saw a blur, and then found his ten year old sister attached to his waist.

"Hey, Nikki." he said, hugging his sister. Nikki let go of Nick, and looked at Jeff. "Nicky, is this your boyfriend?"

"Yes, this is my boyfriend. Jeff meet my little sister Nikki."

"Well hi" he said to the little ball of energy.

"Daddy look Nick got a boyfriend!" Jeff looked on the couch where she ran off to to see Nick's dad sitting there reading the newspaper, his mouth ran dry when he saw how large his dad was, but other than size he looked like Nick.

"Dad be nice to Jeff, please." Nick said, noticing how nervous Jeff looked.

Mr. Duval looked up from the newspaper, and smiled. "It's very nice to meet you. I hope you treat Nicholas right?" He looked at Jeff sternly.

"Nice to meet you too sir and, of course." He came over to him, Jeff heart rate sped up, he never really trusted men.

Nick could tell Jeff was nervous. He was trembling slightly, and he had a death grip on his hand.

"Welcome to the family, son." Mr. Duval said, pulling Jeff into a hug. He let go after a second, and went back to his newspaper.

Nick turned to his boyfriend, "Are you okay?"

"Haven't trusted men all that much, he seems alright thought." He smiled at Nick and loosened his grip on his hand.

Nick smiled softly, at Jeff and hugged him. Just then there was a knock at the door. Nick frowned, "Were you guys expecting someone?"

His father shook his head. Nick went to answer the door, Jeff following behind him. Nick opened the door, and heard Jeff gasp behind him. His Uncle was standing at the door before he could see him he darted out of the way of the door

"Hello Nick, is your Mom there, I'd like to take to her. Update her on your learning condition." Learning condition, that's what he called it! If that is what he's been calling his Dyslexia no wonder Nick thought he was stupid.

"Um, she's in the kitchen." Nick said hesitantly. He motioned for Jeff to head back up the stairs. Nick's dad saw the action, and felt the tension of the situation. Especially off of Jeff. He'd always been good at reading people, it was where Nick got it from.

"Mr. Matthews." he said, motioning for Nick to head upstairs, "How nice to see you." He said politely. "My wife was just making lunch. Nicole why don't you go upstairs?" Nikki headed for the stairs. "Do come in." Mr Duval said politely. Mr. Matthews stepped into the house

"Thank-you." Nick, who had been listening on the stairs, bolted to his room when he heard then men moving toward the kitchen.

Jeff, Nick, and Nikki hid in the bedroom until his Mom told them he was gone and they could finish breakfast.

Nick could tell Jeff was shaken up about his Uncle appearing. He was also angry about something. Nick was nervous to broach the subject, but he finally gathered enough courage to do so on Monday after classes.

"Jeff, what were you so angry about this weekend?" He asked as they were cuddled on his bed watching Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

"Has he always called your Dyslexia a 'Learning condition?' He shouldn't do that, it it's not a disease it's just how your brain works"

Nick shrugged. "Well, that's always what he's called it ever since I came to Dalton. People at my old school just called it my "stupid gene" or my "lazy gene". I guess after a while I just started believing what they said. No one ever told me otherwise."

"That's... horrible" he paused to take it all in "And it doesn't make sense Dyslexia, by definition is a difficulty with learning to read despite normal or above-average intelligence,I know I looked it up. They were wrong Nicky you know that now right?"

"I guess." Nick said feeling uncomfortable. He shifted, avoiding Jeff's gaze. He still wasn't quite sure he believed Jeff. It all seemed to good to be true.

"Well... smart or not you're still my amazing boyfriend" he kissed him on the cheek and put his head on his chest

Nick smiled, and started playing with Jeff's hair. "Thanks, Jeffy." he said quietly.

"Welcome love." they finished Chamber of Secrets and he asked what they should watch next "Can we watch Marry Poppins, been in the mood for that." Nick gave him a strange look, guess he didn't like it as much as he did.

"If you don't mind me asking why have you been in a mood for Mary Poppins?" Nick asked, as he put the movie in his laptop.

"I don't know, that play was my childhood, and my first duet so..." He shrugged "Actual I think we filmed it, kind of crappy though since we were like, in late primary school" they laughed.

Nick's eyes started to get heavy just as Mary Poppins started singing about feeding the birds. He blinked trying to get the sleep out of his eyes, but he just couldn't help it, his eyes closed, and he drifted off.

Nick opened his eyes. He was at his house. Everyone was there. All his old bullies, his family, Jeff, and the Warblers, even the Headmaster.

"Oh, look who's here." his mother sneered. Nick frowned what was going on.

"Oh, Nick we're afraid we can't allow someone as dumb as you in the Warblers." Blaine said.

"Or even for Dalton at that matter." the Headmaster said.

Nick's eyes widened. "Jeff, what's going on?" he asked his boyfriend. Jeff ignored him. Wes cam up to him, and slapped him. Then everybody started hitting him. "Jeff! Help!" Nick called. Jeff came through the crowd, and looked at Nick with disgust. He slapped him across the face, and Nick woke up screaming. He put as much distance as he could between him, and Jeff.

"Nick?" He heard him scream then he darted out the door "Nicky!" He came down the stairs and started looking for him he went through every door he could find soon he was lost in the dark. "Nick, anyone" he went through a door but realized it was a closet, he was that tired, he turned around and tried to back out but it was self-locking. He was trapped in a small space, in the dark. Claustrophobia started to make the walls look closer than reality. He started screaming and kicking the door "Nicky!"

Nick broke through his dream induced terror. He heard Jeff calling for him. He frowned. Where was that sound coming from. He moved down the hall, and finally came to the closet downstairs. He opened the door, and Jeff tumbled out. Jeff took a few breaths and looked up to the person who let him out. "Nicky!" He hugged him "You're okay, where'd you run off to anyways?"

"I was hiding under the bed." Nick said, blushing in the darkness. "Why were you in the closet Jeffy?"

"I was looking for you, then I kind of hot lost, then I mistook the closet for an entrance and I got lock in..." His sentence trailed off realizing how ridiculous it sounded he sighed "Only me right"

"I think it's adorable." Nick said, kissing his cheek. "Let's get back to bed shall we?"

He closed the closet door "Yeah" he kissed him back and laced their hands together as they walked through the dark hallways

The next morning Nick woke up, and got ready for the day. Today they were supposed to have the first Warblers meeting. He should talk to Jeff about trying out for a duet or maybe a solo. He put on his uniform, and went to wake up Jeff.

"Jeffy, wake up." Nick said. They day seemed normal enough, but the last half of the day Jeff could not sit still, he was too excited for his first Warbler meeting. The bell rung and he bolted to the Warbler hall. Nick couldn't help, but smile as Jeff bolted from the classroom. He got up, and followed Jeff to the Warbler hall. They were one of the few people there. Nick sat next to Jeff on one of the couches.

"Hey, Jeffy." Nick said nervously. What if Jeff thought it was a bad idea? Nick was still a little jumpy from his dream last night.

"Yeah" he said with a slight yawn, it had been a long couple of days.

"Do you think I should try out for a solo?" Nick asked, biting the inside of his cheek nervously.

"Defiantly, we could do it together." Okay now he was excited again he started slightly bouncing in his seat. He heard Blaine and Thad coming down the hallway

"Blaine I've told you a million times, first rule of fight club- don't talking about fight club."

"But we're talking about it right now."

"Shut up." Thad squealed when he turned into the room and noticed us there "oh, hi guys you're here early."

"What's fight club?" Nick asked. He'd never heard of a fight club at Dalton.

Thad thwacked him over the head and mumbled something like 'idiot'

"Well it's- um- you know like the movie we practice fighting and-" Thad just dead paned and sighed and gave a full explanation.

"But don't go around telling anyone okay, only club members are suppose to know." He glared at Blaine one more time and walked to the office in the next room over wear Wes and David were.

"I wonder if we could join?" Nick said.

"I don't know Nicky, fighting someone just to fight with no actual purpose? It just sounds- no offense to them- stupid and a little wrong if you want to know how to fight I'd be happy to teach you, but if you still want to go..."

"I just..." Nick paused trying to find the right words. "I just don't want what happened with Trevor to happen again. I want to be able to protect myself, and you. I don't want to feel so helpless."

"It's okay Nick, I'll teach you then maybe we can do fight club I just- I'd hate for you to just get punched and not learn anything. I'm not a brown belt for nothing."

"A brown belt in what exactly?" Nick asked his boyfriend, as Wes and David entered the room.

"Karate" he whispered back as quickly as possible before Wes' gavel slammed on it's pedestal. All the kids that had filled the room since their entrance immediately stopped talking and gave the council their full attention.

"First of all I would like to formally welcome our new-comers, welcome and congratulations to all of you." Jeff smiled he didn't know who else was new, he'd have to ask later. They went on with the meeting talking about sectionals and who they were up against, the combination of familiar and foreign was almost enough to give Jeff vertigo.

"So what did you think of the meeting?" Nick asked after they were back in their dorm room.

"Diplomatic; you guys vote on everything don't you?" He joked "I liked it"

"Well, how else is it supposed to be fair?" Nick said. There was a knock at the door. Nick opened it, and the smile on his face vanished.

"Hello, Headmaster." he said politely.

"I'm here to talk to Jeff." the Headmaster said. Nick turned to Jeff.

Jeff came to the door way and he motioned him to the hallway. Jeff took one last glance at Nick his whole face spelled out 'help' the Headmaster closed the door but Nick just opened it a crack to keep an eye on them.

"Jeffery, Why were you at the Duval house this weekend?" the Headmaster asked sternly.

"Nick invited me to stay over" he said quickly.

"Nick's parents weren't expected to be home until Monday, they informed me they would be home early, but not Nick. What were you two doing ALONE?!"

"N-nothing" now he was getting angry "I just wanted a nice weekend with him, is it such a crime to want to spend time with my boyfrie-" Jeff covered his hand over his mouth. The headmaster grabbed his hair so his head was pinned against the wall.

"Your WHAT."

Nick ran out into the hall, and pushed the Headmaster off of Jeff.

"You stay away from him! If you so much as hurt one hair on his head. We will go to the police! So he's bi. So he has a boyfriend, if you were any semblance of a real Uncle or even a real Headmaster for that matter you wouldn't care. Jeff has people who really love him now. Me and my family. He doesn't need you, but one day your going to look back at this with regret. Because you lost your only family. Come on, Jeffy." He lead Jeff back into their dorm room, and slammed it behind him.

Jeff just stared at Nick in awe with his mouth wide opened "You just- I- he- holy crap" he blinked away a few happy tears and hugged him "thank you"

"Anything for you, Jeffy." Nick said, hugging back. "You know I meant what I said. You'll always have a family with us."

"Thanks, for everything" he took both of Nick's hands and kissed him on the forehead "I love you"

Nick gasped Jeff had just said he loved him! "I love you too." Nick stuttered.

Jeff smiled and pressed their foreheads together, he thought about kissing Nick, like really kissing him- on the lips- but he thought Nick should do it first. The last thing he wanted to do was push the relationship where he was uncomfortable, he already said 'I love you' way too soon, in his opinion, but it just felt right. Nick closed the distance between them, and pressed his lips against Jeff's. His lips were soft, and he tasted like chocolate, of course, that was probably because he'd been eating some earlier. He smiled into the kiss. Everything was perfect now. Jeff kissed back and snaked his arms around Nick's neck as he put his hands on Jeff's waist and closed his eyes, he did not want this to end.

Nick pulled back when air became a need. "Wow." he said breathlessly. His smile seemed to be permanently stuck on his face. They went to bed still smiling about their kiss.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Jeff was dreaming, he had too be because right now him and Nick were making out on the bed and both their shirts lied on the floor. Soon his pants joined "Jeffy, can you do something for me"

"Yeah"

"Wake up we're late!" Jeff's eyes flung opened he was blushing like mad, and downstairs wasn't to great either he pulled the blanket over to cover it from Nick.

"Jeffy! No, going back to sleep! We're barely going to make it to breakfast!" Nick said, trying to pull the blanket off his boyfriend.

Jeff tugged his shirt down so he was covered, grabbed his cloths, made it the bathroom and changed in record time. He made sure that his dress shirt and blazer was covering himself up and they headed out the door for what Jeff assumed should just be coffee for the day

Nick spent the day grumbling through the hallways. By the time they got to the cafeteria, there had only been enough coffee left for one person, and Nick, being the gentleman he was, insisted that Jeff take it.

"Why can't they ever make enough coffee?" He grumbled under his breath, as they walked toward history class. The blond sighed and gave Nick his coffee he only finished about 1/3 of it and he really wasn't big on the drink in the first place. They sat down in their seats and Jeff made sure his shirt was tugged down in the chair, hiding his discomfort all day wasn't going to be easy.

Nick noticed that Jeff seemed to be shifting in his chair a lot. He looked to make sure the teacher was distracted, and leaned over to Jeff. "You okay Jeffy?" he whispered in Jeff's ear.

Jeff blushed but kept his voice casual "Yeah I'm fine, just a little twitchy since this morning." He hated bluffing, especially to Nick, but what was he suppose to do say 'oh yeah I'm fine just hard from the freaking wet dream involving you and I' yeah... No. He crossed his legs and told puberty to srew off. Nick frowned, he didn't believe him, but nodded anyway, since the teacher was glaring at him.

After they got back to their room, and both were situated on Nick's bed, Nick decided to ask Jeff again what was going on this morning. "Are you going to tell me the real reason you were so unsettled in class today?" he asked, softly. It hurt that Jeff didn't seem to trust him with whatever was going on.

Jeff winced "I'm sorry Nicky I was going to tell you just- not in the middle if class it was too embarrassing" Nick raised his eyebrows and waited for him to continue "I got morning wood this morning okay- there I said it" he covered his face with his hands and his face turned to a cherry.

Nick frowned, he didn't believe him, but nodded anyway, since the teacher was glaring at him. After they got back to their room, and both were situated on Nick's bed, Nick decided to ask Jeff again what was going on this morning. "Are you going to tell me the real reason you were so unsettled in class today?" he asked, softly. It hurt that Jeff didn't seem to trust him with whatever was going on. Nick laughed. That's what Jeff didn't want to tell him! "Really Jeff?!" he asked still laughing slightly. "It happens to everyone. No need to be embarassed." He paused for a moment, and then said in a slightly husky voice. "If you don't mind my asking what was the reason behind this morning wood?"

"Well it doesn't happen to me I've only had this happen once before I still don't know a whole lot about this stuff as great as my Mom was she was still a women, she could only talk to me about so much. As for the cause I think it had something to do with the kiss last night or something.

Nick smiled sadly, and pulled his boyfriend into a tight hug. "I didn't mean to make you sad, Jeffy."

"You didn't make me sad, it's just frustrating I have no one to explain this kind of stuff to me." Jeff bit his lip "and the cause I think it's because I kind of- sort of- had a wet dream." He mumbled the last part.

Nick smiled at how innocent his boyfriend was. "Why don't we go back to my house this weekend, and my dad can talk to you. It may seem odd, but he already considers you part of the family. He and mom both asked if you were coming home with me this weekend. And Nikki practically demanded I do it." Nick smiled at the thought of his conversation with his sister. Jeff had certainly made an impression the girl.

He wasn't so sure he was comfortable asking he met once about it but he smile at the offer anyway "Thanks Nicky, and I'd be happy too."

Nick could tell Jeff was slightly hesitant. "You know you don't have to Jeff. Your in charge here. I'm just along for the ride." Nick said smiling, as he kissed the top of Jeff's head.

"I`ll go along with you for the weekend, I`m just not sure about the asking your dad part, maybe in the future but not now." he smiled and pecked Nick back on the lips "Now if you`ll excuse me I need to head to the showers."

Nick shook his head smiling as his boyfriend left. He decided to run out for some ice cream. He left a note for Jeff, and grabbed his keys. As he was leaving he heard someone call out behind him

"Hey, Duval!" he turned to see Trevor coming toward him. Nick's eyes flashed with fear, and he turned trying to find his car.

"You don't have your little boyfriend to protect you now." Trevor said, grabbing his shoulder, and slamming him into the closest car.

"What are you going to do?" Nick asked trembling slightly.

"What I should've done at school..." Trevor paused, "rid the world of you." He dragged Nick to an alley the store, and proceed to beat him. 'I love you, Jeffy.' and he slipped into unconsciousness.

Jeff saw the note on the bed, but something was off, he didn`t like the idea of Nick being alone. He waited ten minutes, then he got worried the ice cream place was only a three minute drive away he should be back by now. he knocked on Blaine`s dorm, he was the only one who owned a car he was close with.

"Hey Jeff, something wrong?"

"Nick hasn`t come back yet, he should be back by now, Blaine I`m worried- if something happened." he started to loose it

"Woah, Jeff calm down. Start from the beginning." Blaine said trying to calm the blonde down. "What's wrong with Nick?"

"Nick went to the ice cream place, it`s only a short drive but he`s been gone ten minutes I`m worried his old bullies done something drive me there" Jeff made it clear that he wasn`t asking.

Blaine decided it was best just to do what the blonde wanted. With as close as Jeff and Nick were Blaine wouldn't be surprised if what Jeff said was true though he hoped it wasn't. Blaine found Nick's car, and parked next to it.

"Blaine" he pointed to something in the ally way, he hoped to god it wasn`t what he thought it was. Blaine walked to check it out.

"Oh my god" Jeff heart sunk when he saw Nick bloody and bruised laying next to the wall. "I`ll call 9-1-1" he nodded.

Jeff checked his pulse, he was alive "Nick, can you hear me? Nicky wake up" he shook him slightly.

Nick woke up slightly, he saw Blaine, and some blonde. "Who are you?" he asked.

"Nicky... you got beat up and you hit your head- just stay here until the ambulace comes okay?"

Nick sat and waited for the ambulance in silence. He glanced at the blonde boy. He seemed familiar. Like Nick should know him, but he just couldn't remember.

"How do I know you?" he asked

Jeff tryed not to cry "Nicky I'm Jeff, Jeff Sterling your boyfriend." That was only response he could manage he but his lip to keep it from quivering. He heard sirens and Blaine waved down the ambulance "finally"

Nick was stunned he had a boyfriend? Suddenly a pain passed through his head. He remembered the boy...Jeff. Was his room mate. He didn't think they were boyfriends, but maybe he didn't have all his memories back yet. They emts put him on a stretcher. They asked if he wanted someone to ride along with him.

"Jeff." he said, as he was wheeled onto the ambulance. Jeff jumped into the ambulance and sat as close to Nick as he could the EMTs covered his cuts and asked him what happend.

"I was getting something." Nick couldn't remember exactly what. "And this guy who used to bully me came, and started beating me. He tried to kill me before. I went to the hospital that time too." He said quietly. He felt someone squeeze his hand. He looked, and saw Jeff. He smiled softly at the boy, grateful for the simple touch. Another flash. He remembered when Jeff found out about his dyslexia, and how he found out about Jeff's mom. And his Uncle being the Headmaster. "Has your Uncle been okay?" Nick asked, his voice cracking slightly. He could really use some water.

He nervously glanced at the medics, the last thing he needed was attention to his uncle so he had more reasons to beat him "You stood up for me, so he hasn't been a problem since then." Hoping the line would trigger some memory he added "You're very brave Nicky"

Another flash. He remembered when he and Jeff became boyfriends. He remembered how Jeff defended him to Trevor, ho he defend Jeff from his Uncle. "I was getting ice cream." he said.

"What?" the EMT frowned.

"I was out getting ice cream. When I was attacked." Nick said.

He turned to Jeff. "I love you, Jeffy."

"Love you too Nicky" he glanced out the window to see the sun setting "how long until we get to the hospital?"

"Fifteen minutes at the most"

"Jeff, did Blaine call my parents?" Nick asked. He wanted his parents to be there. They were always there. But he wanted Jeff there too. "You won't leave me once we're there will you?" he asked fearfully. Nick hated hospitals. Ever since the last time with Trevor. Hospitals were frequent in his nightmares, and Jeff was the only one who could calm him down.

"Yeah he called them, and don't worry I'll be with you the whole time I-" he was about to say 'I promise' but the last promise he made to Nick he just broke "I'm sure of it"

Nick smiled, and fell asleep, as whatever the EMTs put in the i.v entered his bloodstream.

"What's that?" He asked the lady putting an I.V. In his arm.

"Sedation it will make taking care of the deep cuts and the tests for internal bleeding easier for him" he nodded

"Will I be able to stay with him in A&amp;E?"

"It's the ER here and yes" he let out a breath of relief as they rolled him into the emergency wing.

When Nick woke up his head was bandaged, and he ached all over. He slowly opened his eyes allowing them to readjust to the light. He saw his mother asleep on the couch. He glanced at the clock. It was two in the morning. His father and Nikki had probably gone home. He felt someone stir next to him. He turned, and his lips turned into a soft smile, at the sight of Jeff sleeping soundly in a chair by his bed. He gently shook Jeff awake.

"Water?" he asked when he saw that Jeff was indeed awake.

He grabbed the cup of water with a straw from the bedside table and gave it to Nick, the nurse warned them he might need it. "How are you feeling?"

"Sore." Nick said. "Your still here." He smiled softly at the blonde. "What happened while I was out?"

"Of course I am, and they checked you out for internal bleeding, there is none, and they bandaged you up and gave you some pain killers but they warned you'd still be sore." He waited for all the info to process "I'm sorry Nicky."

Nick looked at his boyfriend confused. "What on earth do you have to be sorry for Jeffy?"

"I said I would be there to protect you and this happend, I-I failed" he started to tear up then he felt a hand on his shoulder, Nick's mom.

"Jeffery, honey, there's no way you could've known this would happen. We don't blame you. I am very thankful that you followed your instincts, and found him when you did." Mrs. Duval said. "I'll be back boys."

"Jeffy," Nick said setting his hand on Jeff's, "Don't you ever say that you failed me ever again. You can never fail me Jeffy. Ever. Everything you do is a sucess in my eyes. You could set a barn on fire, and I would tell you, you sucessfully learned to light a barn on fire. You did protect me Jeff. I'm still alive, because you followed your instincts. I love you Jeff Sterling, and don't you ever forget it, so you have no reason to be sorry, do you understand me?" He nodded back to the brunet, he was to tired to argue he kissed Nick then settled back into his chair.

Nick frowned. "Jeffy." he whined. "I wanna cuddle." He started pouting, knowing sooner or later he would get his way.

"Okay" he said with a grin and crawled into the bed with him, being mindful of his snuggled into Jeff's chest, and sighed. He was home. Nick woke up at five to a nurse shaking him.

"Your friend is going to have to leave." she sneered.

"Why?" Nick asked sleepily.

"I need to take some blood." the nurse said.

"Can't he stay with me?" Nick asked, fearfully. He really hated needles.

"No." the nurse said, "Plus, people like you shouldn't even be in our hospitals."

Mrs. Duval chose that moment to speak.

"Jeff can stay" she said sternly "and if you say something like that to my son again I'll be sueing this hospital are we clear." The nurse did what she needed to, and left with a huff.

"Thanks, mom." he said, smiling at his mom. He started subconsciously playing with Jeff's hair.

"Jeffy, shouldn't you be at Dalton?"

"Nicky you do realize it`s like..." he looked at his watch just to make sure "one in the morning and I told you I`m not leaving you."

"Really?" he asked, "But I'm not tired."

"That`s because you had about a six hour nap" he giggled "I would be surprised if you were"

"Can we watch a movie?" Nick asked.

"Sure, just scroll through and try to find the movie channel" he handed him the remote. Nick found the movie channel. They were playing Harry Potter the Chamber of Secrets. Nick smiled, "You know this what we were watching when you told me that your Uncle shouldn't call my dyslexia a 'learning condition'."

"Well he shouldn't, it`s down right repulsive. You`re intelligent Nicky even if you don`t believe me"

"How did you know I didn't believe you?" Nick asked, surprised. He thought he did a pretty good job of hiding hid disbelief.

"You just said it, for one" Nick dead panned "and I know you, you`re way too stubborn to get convinced just like that- no matter how much I want you too but, I`ll get you see it if it`s the last thing I do" he said.

"I want to believe you." Nick said quietly, wrapping his arms around himself. "It's just hard to believe, after hearing it for so long."

"I know, it'll take some time" he looked back at the screen "isn't there anyone at your old school who encouraged you, anyone at all?"

"Well, there was this girl named Brooke. She was my best friend. Actually she was the first one I came out to." Nick said.

Jeff smiled "She sounds wonderful, I`ll have to meet her" He felt his pocket vibrating, it must of been a text from Pete or Tom, Carrie would have remembered the time difference.

"Who is texting you at this time Mr. Sterling?" Nick asked playfully. "You been seeing some one else?"

He looked at the text, sure enough it was Pete "Pete Bucknall, the idiot who dosn`t understand time difference- and is completely straight and dating Carrie I might add. So you have nothing to worry about love."

"Good. I don't wanna share my Jeffy." Nick kissed Jeff's cheek. "Your all mine."

Jeff yawned, he got a little sleep while Nick was unconscious but that was about it, his eye lids felt like rocks, it was about two in the morning now and he'd been up since six the previous morning. "Not sharing you either Nick" his voice was soft and slow.

Nick kissed the top of Jeff's head, and ran his fingers through the silky blonde hair. "Go to sleep, baby. I'll be fine."

Jeff snuggled against Nick and fell asleep, he hoped he didn't have any flash backs since they were in a hospital, he spoke too soon. He was set back to his Mom's last moments in the hospital just when her heart monitor went flat he got woken up, it was Mrs. Duval

"Jeffrey, darling are you okay?" she frowned. "You were shaking in your sleep."

He didn't even try to act strong or atrempt to talk the tears fell instantly. She hugged him

"It's okay honey." She pet his hair just like Nick did. Nick stirred a little, but kept sleeping.

She guided him to the hallway so they wouldn't disturb Nick. "Nightmare?" She asked trying to calm him down

"Flashback" he wish it was a nightmare then he could tell himself it was not real and it would be okay.

"Do you want to tell me about it? Nick used to get them after the last attack. It always helped him to talk about it."

He told her everything, how they were driving back from a weekend in London when a truck hit the drivers side of the car, and he woke up in the ambulance, and when he went to go visit her she flat lined. "They said it was a miracle I only came out with a concussion, but still..." he blinked to dry his eyes out, he did not want to cry in front of her more than he already had.

"Oh, honey." she pulled him into a hug. "You know it's okay to cry. We're all here for you. Nick, me, Mr. Duval, Nikki. We already think of you as part of the family. The minute Nick introduced you as his boyfriend I knew you were gonna be around for forever. I never seen Nick so happy as he is with you. Don't be afraid to let yourself be happy too, Jeff. You deserve it, and your mother would want it."

He nodded and whipped his cheeks dry, he had nothing left in him. The effects of the flash back had wore off and it just became a memory again, a painful one granted, but it was still in his past. He wanted to move on or at the very least get some decent sleep, but now he was wide awake and thirsty from all the water loss. "Can we go get a drink?"

"Sure, sweetie. Let's go to there cafeteria. I think they have some chamomile tea." Mrs. Duval said, steering him toward the cafeteria.

A few sips of the hot beverage and he was out like a light, sleeping in Nick`s bed again with the cup still half full. Mrs. Duvel smiled at the sleeping blond when she noticed her husband started to wake up.

"Where were you?" Mr. Duval asked.

"Jeff, and I went down to the cafeteria. He had a flashback, and was rather shaken up." Mrs. Duval said smiling sadly.

"Those two have been through so much." Mr. Duval said. Nick scooted closer to Jeff in his sleep. He wrapped his arms around the blonde, and snuggled into him. Both the adults smiled.

"We should really do more research on him, we don`t know much, it could help." Mr. Duval said, he rushed from work to here so he still had his laptop with him, though some on the battery was gone from Nikki`s game playing.

"Are you sure we should be doing this?" Mrs. Duval asked, "i feel like we're breaking their trust."

"I was just suggesting it, if you don`t feel comfortable with it we won`t" he closed the laptop top

"Thank you, we can just ask him in the morning"

"Technically it is the morning"

"Oh shush"


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Nick woke up, and blinked in the bright light. He looked at Jeff who was sleeping next to him. He smiled, and kissed his forehead.

"Wake up, Jeffy." said Nick. Jeff didn`t even budge, he just kept sawing logs.

"Let him sleep, he had a long night, remember mister you kept him up until 2 in the morning" she gave him her 'you`re in trouble face'

Nick smiled, sheepishly. "Yes ma'am. But I'm bored without my Jeffy!" He pouted.

"You still need breakfast, so how about we get you some food, then worry about your boredom. Besides the nurse said you should try to walk around a little" She said with a grin, she knew that allowing him to walk around meant he was healing.

"Food!" Nick said. "But I'm not walking around until Jeffy's up." Mrs. Duval rolled her eyes, at her son, and went to get some food.

Jeff smelled bacon and the rest of his senses awoke. he opened his eyes to see Nick eating pancakes and bacon.

"Are you having bacon without me?" he whispered but still manage to make Nick jump he laughed and gave him a kiss, Nick tasted like maple syrup.

"Mom told me to leave you sleeping. You can have one piece of my bacon." Nick said, handing Jeff one of the bacon pieces.

"I`m kidding, it`s your breakfast, you enjoy it. I`m not big on meat anyways" He wasn`t exactly a vegetarian, but he avoided meat as much as possible. It just didn`t agree with him.

"You don't like meat?!" Nick exclaimed. "Jeffy, I'm not sure this relationship is gonna work." He teased a twinkle in his eye.

"I don't know what it is, it's mainly dark meat, white meat and fish seem to be okay." Jeff wrapped his arms around Nick and lied his head on his should while he ate.

Nick enjoyed just cuddling with Jeff. Just then Mr. and Mrs. Duval came in.

"Oh, good your both up!" Mrs. Duval said.

"Jeff, we'd like to talk to you." Mr. Duval said, "Nothing bad. Nick can stay too."

"Um okay" he paused to look at Nick who's face was just as shrived with confusion as his face probably was. "What do you want to talk about?"

"Well, we realized we don't know a lot about you Jeff. We aren't condemning you of anything. We just want to get to know our second son." Mrs. Duval said smiling.

Jeff scowled when they said 'second son' it was sweet and he appreciated being considered part of the family, but actually being called their son felt weird. He wasn`t their son, he was Eponine Sterling`s son, and plus wouldn`t that make Nick his brother... ew. Never the less he shrugged it off "What do you want to know?"

"I don't know, just about your life before you came here. What are your likes dislikes." Mrs. Duval said.

"I apologize now for whatever they said or say that bothers you." Nick whispered in Jeff's ear. Jeff smile at Nick then put his hands to his chin and started chewing on the end of his hoodie sleeve, he did that whenever he was thinking. Being a writer, he was surprised there wasn't holes it it yet.

"Well?" Mr. Duval prompted him to start talking

"Taking everything and narrowing it down to one thing takes time"

"Okay, we can start simple, when and where were you born?" Jeff mentally thanked Mrs. Duval for narrowing down the subject.

"November 8th, 1999 Royal Berkshire Hospital at uh- about 10 am I think, yeah"

Nick smiled his boyfriend always was so specific.

"Where are your dad and mom?" Mr. Duval asked. Nick mentally groaned, his dad was truly something else.

"Don't know, frankly don't care and, heaven" the room became a dead silence that no one wanted to kill, say for Jeff who was sitting casualy drumming his fingers on the bed frane waiting for the next question.

"Any other questions?" Nick said to break the silence. "No? Good. Jeffy and I are going for a walk." Nick moved to the edge of his bed. "A little help Jeffy?" He smiled at his boyfriend.

He jumped off the bed and helped Nick to the doorway. They walked through the hospital hallways slowly with Jeff's arms around his holding him steady and straight- well, direction wise so to speak.

"Ugh, I can't wait till I can walk by myself again!" Nick said. "As much as I love you holding me, it just doesn't work well for practical life."

"I think a lot of people have a lot of things that doesn't work for practical life here Nicky" he said back looking at all the things in the walk in the children's wing. Humming along to a random orchestra piece in his head.

"What's that your humming?" Nick asked not recognizing the tune.

"No idea, just something I've had in my head for the past couple of days" truthfully he had no idea where most of his tunes came from, his head or something he heard and just forgot the origin.

"We should write a song together!" Nick exclaimed, "We could preform it for the council, at the duet tryouts! Plus it would give us something to do. Please, Jeffy, please." He gave his boyfriend the puppy dog face.

"Yeah I'd love too" he smiled back "I wonder if we could get access to any instruments, I heard there was a music room for hospital school for the kids that live here."

"We'll just have to ask a nurse." Nick said nervously, thinking of the previous encounter with the nurse while Jeff slept.

"Preferably a nurse down here, I like it better than down the hall. It's more colorful." His eyes were like pinballs looking at all the stuff on the walls.

Nick laughed, his boyfriend was such a child sometimes. "Yeah, hopefully they'll be better. What should our song be about?"

"I don't know, us" he suggested "I usually do the music then the lyrics, so I have a beat to by. It's easier that way."

"Oh, that makes sense." Nick said nodding. "You know my dad didn't mean to offend you. He didn't know about your parents."

"I know, he can't be held accountable for something he wasn't aware of, it's not his fault he was ignorant."

"I just feel bad. I don't like seeing you sad. As a great man once sang I wanna see you smile." Nick said, smiling and shooting his boyfriend a wink.

Jeff flushed at the reference and the wink, he`s never seen Nick charismatic before. He was quite enjoying it.

"Thanks Nicky, well we've gone in a complete circle" Nick looked up and saw they were back in the hallway of his room "Now what?"

"I don't know. Maybe, we could go back and cuddle for a while." Nick said.

"Sounds good, maybe I could get some breakfast or, I guess it would be brunch since it`s so late." he was so busy he nearly forgot about eating all together, that had been happening a lot lately.

"Yeah, then we can find something to watch." Nick said, as they headed toward the room.

That afternoon, as Nick was finishing his lunch, there was a knock at the door. Assuming it was his parents or a doctor or nurse he called; "Come in."

"Hello, Nicholas, Jeffery." The Headmaster said, entering the room.

Jeff tightened his grip around Nick but, other wise he didn't show any emotion. He was sick of being afraid of his uncle, he was safe with the Duvals now. Nick's grip around his waste tightened and he moved the blond closer to him.

"Nicholas, I am here to inform you that due to your hospitaliztion, and lack of attendance at meetings you are being pulled out of the Warblers. Also, Jeffery I do believe you were not given permission to stay at the hospital with Nicholas." the Headmaster said, glaring at the boys.

"What!" Jeff shouted. That was it, this was the last straw. "You don't have the power to do that, that's the council's decision not yours, and we haven't even missed a meeting. The next meeting is on Friday it's Wendnesday, he hasn't missed anything. And Nick's parents gave me permission to stay here!"

"Ahh, but the council answers to me Jeffery." the Headmaster, regarded Jeff with cold eyes. "And while the Duvals' might have given they're permission I did not. Or did you forget that I am still your legal guardian?"

"No they answer to themselves, they're incontol of the club, the school only funds them, I know, I asked." He was scarred of his uncle getting them kicked out so he asked Wes at one of the lunches, he was glad he did. "And in that context it would be 'welts' not 'while'" he couldn't help but smirk when his correction got under his Uncle's skin, it always has

"Jeffery, you will come home now, or you will no longer be welcome at Dalton." the Headmaster said. "And you will be left to fend for yourself." Nick gasped. Jeff was parolized he just stood there praying someone would get him out of this, he couldn't go home, but he couldn't risk getting kicked out of Dalton and left in an orphanage or foster at school was his sanctuary and where Nick was- now what? He was trapped and no one could get him out, not even Nick's parents but he wished they were here.

"Headmaster, what are you doing here?" Mrs. Duval said, walking into the room.

"I'm here to take Jeffery home" The blond looked at Mrs. Duval with a single clear cut plead: help.

"Well, actually Jeff was going to go shopping with me." Mrs. Duval said.

"Really?" The headmaster said to Jeff, his tone doubtful. Jeff nodded not knowing what else to do, if he went with her was he still going to be thrown out?

"Well, I guess this is good-bye Jeffery. Your stuff will be on the porch when you get home." the Headmaster said and left.

"Jeff, what was he talking about your stuff will be on the porch?" Mrs. Duval asked frowning. The shock slaped him in the face, he couldn't be thrown out of Dalton, he'd loose Nick, he'd loose everything that made him feel safe. That only left him with one option and he hated it. He wrote something down on a piece of paper kissed Nick and ran after the headmaster, not looking back. Mrs. Duval picked up the paper

"Nicky is this his address?"

"I don't...I don't know. He's never been home since he was at Dalton." Nick stuttered. What had just happened?

"Nicholas should we call the police? If this is in fact his address we know where he is." Then it hit Nick what Jeff was doing, man he was smart.

"Yeah, call the cops." Nick said, hoping and praying his boyfriend would be okay when the police got there.

Jeff sat. Waiting. Listening, for anything. Any sound that wasn't his uncle upstairs. Sirens would be preferred, he hoped Nick called the police maybe they were already here and he just couldn't hear it from the basement.

"The police are on they're way Nicky." Mrs. Duval said trying to comfort her son.

"What if he's hurt?" Nick asked looking at his mother sadly. "What if his uncle has done something? What if I never see him again?"

"Honey, Jeff will be fine you have to believe that." Mrs. Duval said.

"I love you, Jeffy." Nick said, tears running down his face.

Jeff was still in the basement trying to forget the pain in his back. His uncle could of find worse than giving him the buckle end of hid belt, he could have beaten him until he made him pass out. Still it hurt, then he heard it. Sirens, and Mr. Duval.

"Jeff's on his way here." Mrs. Duval said, as she hung up the phone. Nick looked up at her.

"Is he alright?" Nick asked, voice small.

"I don't know honey your father couldn't say. He just said they would be here soon." she hugged Nick. After a moment she stood and kissed his forehead. "I have to go get Nikki from your grandma's. I'll be back later sweetheart. Your father and Jeff should be here soon." Mr. Duval carried him up the stairs, out the door and into the car. He had never been so relieved to see a man in his life. Needless to say he was still in pain, but he was going to get help this time they pulled into the hospital and he insisted on seeing Nick before anything else. Nick hugged him as soon as he steped foot into the door, he winced as his arms made contact with his back. The wince did not go un-noticed by Nick. He frowned and pulled back. "Jeffy, what's wrong?"

"M-my back" Jeff stuttered out.

"What happened? What did he do?" Nick asked panicking slightly.

"Nick, calm down." Mr. Duval said, placing a hand on his son's shoulder.

"He gave me the belt, it's not the worst thing he could of done, just get ice, lots and lots of ice" he answered. He tried to get his shirt off, even the fabric was starting irritate the 20 or so hatch marks.

Nick helped Jeff take off the shirt, and gasped when he saw his boyfriends back. The belt had left red stripes across Jeff's pale back. Nick tried but couldn't hold back the sobs that started escaping his mouth. Jeff hugged Nick as best he could "Nicky don't cry, he's gone now so please. If you cry I'll start falling apart and I really don't want to do that right now" he wiped the tears rolling down his face.

"I'm sorry Jeffy." Nick said trying to control himself. "It's just I as so scared I lost you. I love you so much, and I can't stand the thought of someone hurting you." He sniffled.

"I know, love I know, but I`m safe now. It hurts but I`ll be okay" he kissed Nick "Mr. Duval could you ask the nurse for some pain reliever, and some ice." the pain started to migrate to other parts of Jeff`s body making him weaker and weaker.

"Come on Jeff. Let's get you in bed. Nick said half carrying, half helping Jeff to the bed. The nurse came in only moments later, then left again. "So what do you want to do?"

"I`m not sure, we could watch a movie. I need something to keep my mind off things" he replied popping some Advil in his mouth. "What do you want to do?"

"I don't know we could watch Pirates or we could just lay here, maybe talk a little. Or kiss a little." Nick blushed.

"Lying and Kissing a little sounds fantastic" He straddled Nick`s lap, careful he keep his spine straight. They had only been kissing for a couple minutes when someone cleared their throat behind them. Nick broke the kiss and saw a police officer standing there.

"I'm looking for Jeff Sterling."

"That`s me" as embarrassing as it was in this position shirtless, he was afraid of moving.

"I need you to tell me everything you can about what happened today, and start from the beginning. You don't have to move, but I do need to talk to you now. So, I'm afraid your kissing session will have to wait." the detective said, kindly.

"Well, my Uncle came in earlier this morning, to tell Nick he was out of the show choir we were in because he was hospitalized.I said that wasn't fair then I guess he got angry and told me if I didn't come home he`d through me out of Dalton and his home, the school we go too. So I went with him, he did this" pointing to his back "threw me in the basement, then you guys came."

"Does your Uncle have a history of violence or animosity towards you?" the detective asked.

"Yes, ever since he became my guardian a month and a half ago."

"And why is it that you became under his guardianship?" the detective asked. Nick hugged Jeff gently.

"My mom died two months ago, so he was the only family I had left. Thus Me coming to America and his guardianship-ness" he felt Nick wrap his arms around him

"What about your dad?" the detective asked. Gees could this guy have to be clarified about everything? What part of 'only family left' did he not understand?

"No idea" he didn't want to touch on the subject Jeff didn't even remember the guys name.

"Well, we'll probably be looking into finding him. We'll let you know." the detective said. "Do you have somewhere to stay?"

"He can stay with us." Nick said quickly.

The detective looked at Jeff. "Is that okay?"

"Yes, that's more than okay" he hugged Nick he was finally staying with them permanently.

"We'll let you know when we find out anything, Mr. Sterling." the detective said, then he left.

"Jeffy, are you okay." Nick asked.

"Okay may be stretching it right now" he forced a small smile "does it look as bad as it feels?"

"It looks pretty bad." Nick said. "Do you need some more ice or Advil, baby?"

Jeff blushed at the nick-name "Ice would be good, I don't want to risk it with the pills" he's never overdosed on medicine before, but apparently it sucked, he didn't need to add any more sucks to today(unless it was by Nick.)

Nick pressed the call button asked the nurse for some ice. She returned moments later with a little bowl of ice cubes then left. "What are you supposed to do with these?" Nick asked, annoyed. Little pieces of ice would be very unhelpful, except for making Nick embarrassed. That they could probably be very helpful for.

"Lay them on and hope they don't fall off" he chuckled at the nurses' mistake "she must of thought it was for a drink" he slowly layed on his stomach and waited for Nick to put the ice cubes on.

"Yeah, must be." Nick stuttered. He swallowed nervously, and started placing ice cubes on Jeff's back.

Jeff noticed the nervous look and cocked a eyebrow up "What's with you?" He regretted sounding so careless, he wanted to be there for him. He must have showed it.

"Nothing!" Nick said, shifting to try and give himself a little more room in his sweat pants. He could feel a blush on his cheeks. There was no way he was telling Jeff, why he was nervous.

"Oh okay then" he desided not to push it, though he was a little hurt that he wouldn't tell him he still had his fair amount of secrets and things to tell. He got more comfortable in his pillow and tried to relax with the cold.

Nick could tell he'd hurt Jeff's feelings. "It's just kind of...turningmeon." he rushed the last part, his face turning beet red. He really hoped Jeff had missed what he said.

Jeff smirked as his cheeks heated up. he heard Nick loud and clear "Oh so when I get hard from a freaking wet dream you think it's laudable, but your too embarrassed to tell me when it happened to you yeah okay cause that's totally fair" he said it such a monotone voice he was hoping Nick would take it as a joke, he couldn't exactly turn around to see him.

"I'm very self-conscious!" Nick said, defensively.

Jeff snorted "Okay Nicky in that case I'm honored to be the cause of you self conscious-ness." He rested his head sideways on the pillow and patted the spot next to him motioning his boyfriend to move where he could see him.

Nick lay down next to Jeff, opting to lie on his back though, instead of his stomach.

"What are we going to do?" Nick asked, "We need to work on our song."

"Um okay, do you have anything worked out lyric wise, I have the meledy and some of the harmonies done. They're in my note book." He pointed to the blue spiral on the chair next to the bed with the cover filled with doodles and 'Jeff Sterling's song book' in bold messy letters.

Nick yawned, "Aww that's so cute baby! Your notebook reminds me of something on Disney Channel. I have a few things figured out, but not the whole song.

He dead panned "Please, don't ever compare me to something from Disney Channel. Ever."

"But your cute, and Disney Channel is cute. We would make a really cute Disney show. Although, I don't think Disney would ever have a show with us so maybe Fox?" Nick said sleepily. He kissed Jeff's cheek. "I love you, baby."

"Love you too" Nick handed him the notebook and he looked at all the doodles, most of them done by Tom and Pete, but some of them by him and Carrie when they were dating he tried to ignore the chibi Jeff and chibi Carrie holding hands that she made in the corner of it. Hopefully Nick didn't see it.

"What's that?" Nick asked pointing to the chibi. "That one looks like you. Who's the other one?"

Crap, why did he have to be so observant. "Carrie" he looked at the little drawing, back in year 6 when his hair was shorter, but she looked the same with her mess of long sandy curls with the hair bow and red poka-dot dress. He tried to look at the other stuff, a sketch of his summer cottage in the country, English jack, fails of the treble cleft.

"So, that's what Carrie looks like." Nick said, softly. "She's very pretty." He was starting to fell rather insecure. What did he have that Carrie didn' t? What would keep Jeff from running back to her?

"Yeah" he gritted his teeth "Pete's lucky I guess" the blond really didn't want to talk about it he didn't want to put salt on that wound. He had enough of those to worry about.

Nick felt his heart drop. He rolled over so Jeff couldn't see the tears. "Good night." he said, trying to keep his voice from cracking.

Jeff put his hand on Nick's "I'm luckier though I have you, you wouldn't dump me for someone else, I can tell" he squeezed his hand then threw the book back on the chair "night love"

Nick smiled slightly and rolled over, cuddling into Jeff's side. "Don't ever leave me." he said.

"Never, I swear as long as I live, I'll be here" he smiled "I don't want to lose you Nicky, that's why I had to go. Losing you would be a lot more painful than anything he could have done."

"You'll never lose me Jeffy." Nick said. He kissed the blonde's forehead, and then went to sleep.


	6. Chapter 6

Jeff dozed off soon after Nick, he had nightmares as usual. Except time he didn't wake up screaming or shaking. 'Calm down, he's gone it wasn't real' he thought to himself as he tried to get his breathing back to normal. He sat up, but something wasn't right. He felt something wet on the mattress, the ice cubes maybe? Then he smelled the air and looked down. His underwear, jeans, and the mattress were soaked with his pee. He had wet the bed with Nick still in it next to him.

Nick woke up to something wet on the bed. He sat up blinking sleepily. "Jeffy, what's going on?" He asked groggily.

Jeff only squeaked back in response, what could he tell him? He had wet his pants like he was five. He covered his face with his hands and stated crying with embarrassment. He didn`t want to see Nick`s face when he saw what he did.

Nick looked down and realized what happened. "Oh, baby." he pulled Jeff into a hug.

He sobbed into Nick`s chest "I`m sorry Nicky I didn't- I don`t- oh god you`re covered in it" Nick`s sweat pants had absorbed some of the dreadful yellow liquid.

Nick started playing with Jeff's hair. "It is fine Jeffy calm down. Things happen. I'll call the nurse and we'll fix everything. But you need to calm down, baby."

Jeff took a few deep breaths and settled his nerves, there was nothing he could do about it but clean himself up "Okay" he whispered "I`m going to clean up" he slid to the edge of the bed when he noticed they woke Mrs. Duval.

"Boys what`s wrong I-" she stopped mid-sentence, fully awake now she analyzed the situation. "Oh honey" Nick watched as his mom pulled Jeff into a hug. "You go get cleaned up. I'll take care of everything." Mrs. Duval said. She kissed Jeff's forehead, and went out to find a nurse. He trudged to the bathroom and cleaned himself up best he could with the toilet paper.

Well now what? He couldn't put his cloths back on, his pants and underwear were soaked and his back still hurt too much for his shirt. He couldn't just sit here without them. Mrs. Duval knocked on the door. "Jeff, I have some clothes for you. There Nick's so they won't fit perfectly, but they should be fine for tonight. I'll have my husband stop and pick up some of your stuff from the dorm." Jeff carefully opened the door as minimally as possible and grabbed the change of clothes while hiding behind the door

"It`s fine, thank you" he put on everything say for the shirt and walked out to see the nurse had finished changing the sheets.

Nick went into the bathroom and changed. He came back out moments later, and then climbed into the freshly made bed. He opened his arms, "Come here Jeffy." he climbed in with him, Jeff`s face was still red from being embarrassed. "Baby, seriously there's no need to be embarrassed." Nick said, seeing Jeff's blush. His mom had left the table light on.

"No need, Nick I just wet the bed like a five-year-old and worse it got on you" he put his head down so his long blond bangs covered his eyes.

"You wanna know something, Jeffy?" Nick said, "When I was first attacked by Trevor, I wet the bed too. It was the most embarrassing thing ever, but you know what my mom told me? She told me that even Albert Einstein admitted to wetting the bed. So if it happened to the smartest man ever, I shouldn't be embarrassed if it happened to me."

He smiled, his boyfriend had a point "I've always looked up to him you know, him and J.K. Rowling" he let Nick cuddle him as they settled down to go to back to sleep.

Nick yawned and stretched his arms as he woke up. "Good morning, Nick." Mrs. Duval said.

"Morning Mom." he said.

"I'm going to get some coffee." she said, walking out the door. Nick tried to get up, but Jeff was holding tightly to his waist.

"Jeffy, wake-up." he said, shaking his boyfriend gently. Jeff unhooked his arms from Nick and sat up still trying to keep his spine straight, not that it was hard, it was almost second nature to him now. It had been pounded into his head by his teachers that an un-straight spine causes a life of destitution. He never knew why, or understood that fact, he just did it. Mrs. Duval came back with coffee and tea.

"Coffee for you Nicholas." she handed Nick the coffee as he walked out of the bathroom.

"And some tea for you Jeffery"

"Thank you" he took the cup and sipped at the drink, he still wasn't use to American tea yet. He stretched out if habit.

Bad idea

Really, really bad idea

Jeff yelped on pain, and Nick ran to his side, "Are you okay?"

"Ow, yeah just stretched and forgot they were there" it was weird referring to hatch marks in his back 'they' but whatever the case, 'they' were a nuisance. "Does it still look bad?"

"Not as bad as yesterday." Nick said. They were just a pinkish shade today, instead of the angry red they had been.

He let out a breath of relief as his response, if they still were red like yesterday it meant that they were probably going to scar. "Well that's good that means he only went skin deep."

"How do you know that?" Nick asked with a frown. Had this happened before?

"He's been beating me since I got here" he took a sip of his tea "I'm just glad it's over"

"Why didn't you tell me" Nick yelled, angrily. If Jeff had told him sooner, something could've been done sooner.

Jeff jumped when Nick yelled at him "I did, Nicky I said he beat me and I got sent to the hospital remember when I found out about your dyslexia and you being out?"

"You never said that was after your mom died. I thought you meant when he came to visit you or something. You were never gone long enough from our dorm for you to go to the hospital though." Nick said with a frown.

"My mum died two months ago and he dragged me to America a few days after the funeral so I had a few weeks to settle in, he found out I was bi and that's when it started. It's not until after the hospitalization he put me in Dalton." Nick started crying. He just couldn't stop it. He felt so horrible, he could never protect Jeff.

"Nick don't worry, I'm fine now thanks to you, I thought this was going to be my life until eighteen, you saved me Nicky."

"I just wish I could've protected you." Nick sniffled. "I feel like I let you down."

"Nick you could never let me down, not after all that you`ve done for me. You took me in, you gave me hope, and I love you"

"Let's get some food shall we" he said and they dialed the 'f-o-o-d' number to order breakfast. After breakfast, they sat on the bed cuddling. "You know we get out of the hospital tomorrow." Nick said, softly.

"Really?" he said excited to get out of here "how`s that going work, I still is can't wear a shirt, let alone the uniform"

"Well, I guess you'll just have to stay shirtless in our room." Nick said, winking at his boyfriend

Jeff blushed and smiled "So before the police man came in we were kissing and, I kind of wanted to continue... Can we continue?"

"I think that can be arranged." Nick said, before leaning in and attaching his lips to Jeff's. He wrapped his hands around Nick`s neck as he felt his tongue come along the blonde's mouth, he opened it up imminently.

"Ahem." a voice behind them said. Nick turned, and immediately shrank. It was the nurse from earlier.

"I thought my mom told you to stay away." he said, in a small voice.

"I'm here to check you out, and an officer wanted to see the blond one in the hall for evidence or something" Jeff reluctantly got off the bed.

"I swear that guy has the worst timing ever" he mumbled as he walked out of the room "hello sir"

1h ago"Hi Mr. Sterling, if you don't mind, we need to record your injuries for evidence against you're uncle" he said. Jeff nodded and the officer guided him to a room where they could take pictures of his back. Nick waited for Jeff to come back. The blonde didn't have his license yet so Nick still had to drive. Jeff came back a moment later.

"What did they want?" Nick asked, kissing his boyfriend's cheek.

"They just wanted to record my injuries for evidence against my uncle" he paused to let it sink in "and they think they found something about my dad"

"What did they find out?" Nick asked, grabbing Jeff's hand while keeping his other on the steering wheel.

"They think they found where he is, some town in Germany, I could have sworn my Mum said he was Irish but I'm nervous, what if they actually find him? I mean I'm wondering what he looks like but I don't want to meet him. You know how I feel about men other than your dad"

"I know, Jeffy." Nick said giving his hand a squeeze.

"Anyways, let`s get into a better topic, do you think we could manage the warbler meeting or no? I mean we are just going to sitting there listening to Wes babble until next week right?" nobody knew that they had been in the hospital, so he didn`t want to raise suspicion by missing school AND their second meeting. He had asked Blaine to keep quiet about it, he hoped Blaine wasn`t a promise breaker.

"I think so." Nick said, "We should practice our song at some point too."

"Yeah, I hope I heal enough I can dance with a lot of questioning if we do get to choreography Friday."

"Maybe we should just tell them." Nick said, "They are our friends." Jeff just started to bite his sleeve again until it hit him that Nick said WE

"You would do that, tell them all what happened? I thought you wanted to keep you being bullied by Trevor a secret?"

"I'd do anything for you Jeffy. Plus, they are our friends. If they start teasing us or something then we know they weren't really our friends." Nick said, with a shrug, as he pulled into the parking lot of Dalton.

"Okay" Jeff quietly said, he didn't know how to do this or how he would be treated after they found out, they may not bully him but, he didn't want to be pitied either "They're going to want to know why the headmaster was arrested so they'll probably find out anyways, better me than the staff."

"I know your scared Jeffy, but everything will be okay" Jeff took a deep breath and put his hoodie all the way on so it covered his back and zipped it up. It was the only thing he was able to wear that didn't irritate his skin so they rushed to the door. It was cold for late October.

"I can't wait to get to our dorm room." Nick said, with a shiver, as they entered Dalton. "Can we cuddle once we get there?"

"Sure Nicky" he said as Nick unlocked the door to the dorm and let them in quickly. "Hopefully we don't interrupted by a cop this time." The blond pulled off his hoodie and let the cool air tame the burning of his marks.

"Yay cuddles!" Nick said, bouncing into the room, and then Jeff's bed. He really shouldn't have had that double-shot espresso from Starbucks. Jeff closed the door and laughed, was this was it like to watch him be energetic? He sat on the bed next to him and cuddled to Nick`s chest. It was great to be back in a familiar setting. Nick sighed. "I really don't want to go back to class tomorrow."

"Nicky, we've missed enough. If you miss more school it`s going to be harder to catch up, I know I`ll probably such but I don`t want you getting overwhelmed. You know getting stressed only makes your dyslexia worse. At least this way you`ll have the weekend to get most of it done." He kissed the top of his head "I`ll help as much as I can, okay?"

"Okay." Nick pouted. He knew Jeff was right, but he still really didn't want to.

"Hey, if you start to feel pain you can always go to the nurse if that`s what you`re worried about" he bit his lip "Believe me I`m worried about tomorrow too, hopefully the shirt is okay, defiantly can`t wear the blazer though"

"Did you let the new headmaster know so you don't get in trouble?" Nick asked, worried now.

"Wait... There's a new headmaster already?" He said astonished "He got arrested yesterday how they get someone to replace him so quickly?"

"I don't know" Nick said his brow furrowing. Just then there was a knock at the door. He huffed, got up, and opened the door. "Dad what are you doing here!?"

"I'm the new headmaster." Mr. Duval said.

"What?" Jeff exclaimed overjoyed "How?" He came over to the door and Mr. Duval hugged them both, carefully avoiding Jeff's back.

"I'm on the school board and I volunteered." Mr. Duval replied.

"This is the best day ever!" He hugged him back "Thank you, for everything" he smiled at the blond "I trust you" it seemed like a random statement, but this a big milestone for Jeff; he's never said it to a guy that wasn't over 18.

Mr. Duval smiled, "Thank you Jeffery. I'll see you boys this weekend."

"Bye, Dad." Nick said hugging him Then Mr. Duval left. Nick closed the door and turned to Jeff. "I am so proud of you."

Jeff smiled and blushed "Thanks Nicky, it's getting late you want to get to bed? And don't worry; I'll make sure I go before hand." Hopefully the bed-wetting was a onetime thing; Jeff did not want to make a mess in the dorm.

Nick yawned, "Yeah let's go to bed, since we have to go to class tomorrow."

"Thank god it'll be a Friday, and we have that ice cream making lab in Chemistry, so that's one upside and... Yeah that's all I got" they both laughed. They slipped on their pajamas and got ready for some proper sleep.

Nick opened his eyes the next morning and groaned. Why did it have to be day time? He rolled back over, and snuggled into Jeff, and tried to go back to sleep.

1h ago"Nicky, you can`t go back to sleep, we have to go. We need to get down for breakfast" Nick just groaned and rolled over. Jeff got a devilish idea, he knew exactly how to wake his boyfriend up "If you don`t get up soon they`ll run out of coffee again." Nick's eyes shot open, and he jumped out of bed.

"I'm up, hurry Jeffy before the coffee's gone!" Jeff bit his lip to stop himself from laughing and grabbed his towel and followed Nick to the showers, got dressed in the uniform say for the blazer, it was just too much. He tried the vest which he completely forgot about. It seemed alright so he continued to get ready as fast as possible.

"Come on Jeffy!" Nick said practically dragging his boyfriend to the cafeteria.

The blond tried to keep up with Nick but, he was dreading seeing the Warblers again, they're bound to know what happened. What was he going say? They got to cafeteria and Blaine immediately hugged Nick.

"You guys are back!"

"Of course we're back silly." Nick giggled. He looked over at Jeff who looked nervous. "Do you think vacations last forever?" He could tell Jeff wasn't ready to tell their friends, and Nick wasn't going to push him.

"Oh so you two went on vacation, together, with no one else around, alone?" Trent asked with a pervy smile on his face. Blaine just looked at Jeff and Nick utterly confused.

"Vacation but, Nick you..." Jeff's glare at the hobbit made the words run dry in his mouth.

"Yes, we went on vacation, but my family was there, Trent!" Nick glared at the boy. "Let's get our breakfast Jeffy."

"Okay" he went in line with Nick as he got his coffee, while he got some toast with jam and tea. They swiped their student cards to pay and sat down, hoping no further questions would be asked.

Wes gave them a weird look, and said, "So Warbler practice today. We should be dancing today."

"Oh yeah, do we have the songs picked out?" Jeff asked trying to be nonchalant about it, but in his head he was dying. How could he or Nick dance with there still healing injuries? He looked at Nick ready to give up, they had to tell them whether he was ready or not, or else they may be thrown out of the Warblers all together.

"The thing is Wes. We both have really bad sun burns and can't dance." Nick said, thinking quickly.

"Wait really?" Wes said Jeff wanted to jump across the table and hug Nick for being a genius.

"Yeah, that's kind of why I had to opt out the blazer for today." Both Wes and David made the same face: a mixture of sympathy and a wince, like they got how bad it had to be. Jeff had a feeling they were going to pay for this eventually.

Nick walked into the classroom and sighed. "That was a close one." He told Jeff, as they sat down.

"Yeah... I feel awful lying to them Nicky, especially with Blaine right next to us. Now what, we can't keep lying forever?"

"I don't know Jeffy." Nick sighed, "I just didn't want you to have to tell them when you didn't want to. Everything will be okay though, baby, I promise." He pulled Jeff into a hug.

"Alright, but we need to do it soon, maybe after practice. In our dorm, so it's more private and not so cafeteria-ish." He knew he had to tell them, whether he was ready or not wasn't going to be a favor in this- he was not letting Nick- or anyone else-lie for him again.

"Alright, we'll talk to them after practice." Nick said. He kissed Jeff's forehead. "I'm very proud of you Jeffy."

"You`ve come alone way too, it`s not just me you should be proud of yourself Nicky" he sat down on his desk. Nick blushed. He still wasn't used to such compliments.

"Thanks." he said softly. Then the bell rang. Jeff tried to keep up with the lesson, but after missing so much it was hard. He kind of got what the teacher was saying, but without all the previous information the lesson might as well been in Chinese. This was basically what he when through all day. He asked the teacher for the work he missed at the end of each block, and persevered until the final bell rung.

By the time he got back to their dorm Nick was in tears. Everything had gotten so jumbled today. There was so much information, and he hadn't been able to understand much of anything. He got to their room before Jeff, and lay down on his bed, and cried.

Jeff stormed into the dorm, plopped the packet of make-up work on his bed and took his shirt off. The cloths were okay this morning, but as the day went on they got more and more irritable, Jeff was pretty sure his back was fire red by now. He saw Nick lying in his bed crying. He plunged face first into his pillow.

"I`m guessing by the tears you understood the same minuscule percent of today as I did." his voice was muffled by the fluff of the pillow.

"Probably even less" Nick said. "How's your back?"

"Irritating, I`m seriously starting to hate shirts all together" he propped his chin up with his hands and looked up at Nick, who was still in tears. "Don`t worry it`s the weekend now, no more teachers until Monday. I`m still standing on my promise I made to help you as much as I can."

"I just hate being different." Nick sniffled, "I wish I could be like everyone else. Nobody will ever stay with me. It's too much work. One day you'll find somebody better than me, and leave and I'll just be here all alone for forever, because no one as perfect as you should have to put up with someone like me."

Jeff opened his mouth to reply when there was a knock at the door. His eyes stung, he didn`t care who was at the door, he was not letting Nick go so easily. "Perfect? Nicky I`m not perfect, I`m far from it, you may know a lot about me but you don`t know everything." He stood up off the bed "You want to know how 'perfect' I am Nicky, okay, I`m A.D.H.D., I know how to fight but never use it; not even when my uncle was beating me, I`m so perfect that Carrie, my best friend that I gave everything too including my virginity dumped me for Pete, I had an eating disorder for months and no one noticed, and I have so much emotional baggage that I`ll probably never have a good night`s sleep ever again, if it wasn`t for you I`d probably be in a mental hospital by now from all this crap, I need you just as much as you need me, so don`t-" he started hyperventilating "Don`t ever say something like that- please Nicky I need you."

Nick hugged his boyfriend close. How had he not seen all this in Jeff? He always thought he was the one that was being held together in their relationship, but maybe they were both holding each other together. Jeff let Nick hold him and got his breathing back to normal, he whipped his face dry, then Nick`s. They heard another knock on the door this time the person sounded frustrated.

1h ago"Guys, open up I know you`re in there" It was Blaine, how had he not heard all that yelling?

Nick sighed, and got up to open the door "Yes, Blainey?" He asked trying to sound happy.

"Don`t 'Blainey' me, you lied to everyone this morning what gives oh-that`s not a sunburn" Blaine looked shell shocked when he saw the red marks on Jeff`s back.

"Jeff didn't feel comfortable telling everyone what happened." Nick said. "But we decided we were going to tell everyone after practice. Although now I'm not sure we'll get to practice." Nick said frowning at how red Jeff's back looked. The blond covered his self with his arms, he was comfortable being shirtless with Nick, but he didn`t know Blaine all that well.

"What happened?" Jeff bit his lip trying to figure out how to word this gently to the warbler lead.

Nick moved over to Jeff, and wrapped his arms around his boyfriend, "You can do this baby." He whispered in his ear.

Jeff sighed "Blaine, you know the headmaster was arrested Wednesday night right?"

"Yeah... what does that have to do with anything?"

"He`s my uncle" Realization wrapped around Blaine`s face

"So, when they said he endangered the welfare of a child..."

Jeff nodded "He did this."

Nick hugged Jeff "Do you think you'll be able to put your shirt back on?"

"I think I can deal with the dress shirt, but other than that no" Jeff looked at Blaine "Do you think the Warblers would mind?"

"Probably not, especially after you explain to them what's going on." Blaine said.

"Do you want some help Jeffy?" Nick asked, as Blaine left.

"No I got it, probably just need a shower and the irritation will go down" he slipped on his shirt and went to the shower room with Nick.

Nick walked hand in hand with Jeff into the Warbler hall. He squeezed Jeff's hand and gave him a smile. They could do this. Everything would be okay. They sat down on the couch like their first meeting; Jeff flinched when Wes banged the gavel and started. This was going to be torture.


	7. Chapter 7

"You're alright, Jeffy?" Nick whispered. The meeting seemed to drag on forever.

"Yeah I'm okay" they just seemed to go over songs today, not choreography. So that was good. Wes ended the meeting early and they went back to the dorm, relieved that it was over.

"I told Wes, David, Thad, and Trent to meet us before dinner." Nick said, as he plopped down on his bed. "We have until then to do whatever. So, what do you wanna do?"

"Got any energy for Mario cart?" Jeff jokingly answered shedding his shirt once again.

"I thought we could do something more fun." Nick said, winking at his boyfriend. Jeff blushed and could feel his pants get tighter thinking about what Nick meant by 'fun.' Why the sudden boldness? Whatever the reason Jeff liked it. Nick pressed his lips against Jeff's. "I love you, Jeffy." he mumbled

"I love you too Nicky" Was all he could get out before Nick slammed his lips against his again. He wrapped his arms around Nick's neck. Jeff wondered how far they were going to get this time. Every other time they tried they had gotten interrupted but, dinner was two hours from now. After about an hour and a half Nick was shirtless as well. When there was a knock at the door. Nick pulled away from the kiss with a sigh.

"Show time" He smiled softly at Jeff. "Are you going to be okay, baby?"

"As I'll ever will" he said doing a quick comb over to his hair with his hands and loosely slipped on his shirt.

Nick put on his shirt and opened the door. "Hey, guys." he said letting Trent, Wes, David, and Thad into the room.

"Hey" Jeff greeted them and sat them down so they could talk "We have to talk"

"Talk about what?" Wes said

"Is this the reason why you were acting so strangely this morning?" David inquired,

"And what's with the hair" Trent asked Nick moving his eyebrows up and down.

"Yes, David it is." Nick said, ignoring Trent's question. "Jeff and I weren't really on vacation."

"So where were you two?" Wes said

"Hospital" Jeff replied sheepishly. The room exploded with question and neither of them could make it out.

"Hey! Hey! QUIET!" Nick yelled, getting everyone's attention. He flinched as everyone stared at him. He'd never been one for attention. "We will answer your questions, but please one at a time okay?"

"Okay, why were you guys in the Hospital?" Dave asked

"Well, I was beaten up by my old bully." Nick said, and then looked at Jeff. He wasn't going to tell Jeff's story that was Jeff's place. He grabbed his boyfriends hand in support.

Jeff couldn't find his voice. So he just turned around and slipped his shirt off so they could see. They all gasped "My uncle gave me the belt. He was the headmaster, that's why he was arrested."

Nick kissed Jeff's cheek. "So proud baby." he whispered in Jeff's ear. He turned to their friends. "We're sorry we lied. I just didn't want Jeff to have to do anything he wasn't ready for. I hope you guys can understand and forgive us."

"Of course we will" Wes said

"We understand, it's got to be so hard to deal with that" Dave said sympathetically. Great, pity, just what Jeff was trying to avoid.

"Thanks guys." The bell rang for dinner. "We'll be down in a minute." The boys nodded and left. Nick turned back to Jeff. "What's wrong Jeffy? You're upset about something."

"I just- I didn't want to be pitied. I don't need sympathy from anyone I just need time to heal is all." Jeff tried to not sound selfish or ungrateful.

"I get it." Nick nodded. "You don't want to be treated like something breakable. Just remember, it's because they care."

"I know that, I'll never forget that, but still..." Jeff shook the thought out "forget it at least they care. Let's get food."

Nick smiled, and followed Jeff out the door. He could tell Jeff was still upset, but he let it go for now. He couldn't change his boyfriends mind. "I wonder what we're having for supper. Do you remember Jeffy?"

"No, I haven't looked at the menu all day, hopefully something good." Jeff slipped his hand into Nick`s as they walked down the hall.

After supper Nick and Jeff went up to their room. Nick tried to work on the make-up work, but it was really slow going. Jeff`s eyes darted to one paper to the next, reading and trying to understand as much as he could. Nick looked frustrated. As much as Jeff wanted to help him, he needed to be done, or else he would be useless helping him. He finished the simple stuff as fast as possible he had so much built up nervous energy he could not sit still, he must have looked like he was trembling by now. A.D.H.D. sucked sometimes.

"Jeffy, did you understand the math lesson today?" Nick asked rubbing his temples.

"I'm trying too" he drummed his fingers on the note book a million times per minute. "I need help; can you ask Blaine to help us?"

Nick got up, and came back a few minutes later. "Blaine's out on a date."

Jeff dropped his book in shock "He's on a what, with who?"

"He's on a date." Nick repeated. "With the boy that was spying, apparently his name is Kurt."

"That`s great! Not that exceptionally timed for us, but still great." He thought of who else too ask "Maybe Wes or David, the info might be one or two years old but, they still learned it. I`m sorry but I can`t help you if I don`t know it myself. I thought it would be easier than this." Nick chewed on the bottom of his cheek nervously. The problem was Wes and David didn't know about his dyslexia. The only person who knew besides Jeff was Blaine.

"They don't know, do they?" Jeff saw the lip bite. Nick only did that when he was nervous "Nick I need help with this. They'll understand if you're struggling with it because we missed the lesson entirely. I can't help you if they don't help me, and I want to help you Nicky."

Nick nodded slowly and went to find Wes and David. Jeff probably read the same sentence 20 times and he still understood it as well as the first time. Nick came back with Wes; David was nowhere to be seen though.

"So, you two need some help catching up?"

"Big time" the blond warbler replied, relieved that he was here "Where's David?"

"We...uh... we had a fight." Wes said, rubbing his neck in embarrassment. Nick's jaw dropped in shock. He always thought those two were attached at the hip.

"If I may ask, what was the fight about?" Nick asked.

"Girlfriend troubles, I'd rather not talk about it." They simply nodded their heads "So, the lesson" he said to quickly change the subject. Wes explained the lesson, and several others to Nick and Jeff. Nick still didn't quite get it, but the problems looked less like useless jumbles. After Wes left, Nick turned to Jeff.

"Well, this day has been full of drama."

"Yeah, just what we need right?" Jeff sarcastically responded. "Need any more help, or our you good?" pointing to Nick`s almost complete homework.

"A little help please, the end was still kind of confusing." Nick said. Jeff helped him with the last couple of questions then put everything away for the day.

"So" he movies himself closer to Nick "Where're done, what now?"

"I don't know." Nick said with a shrug. "What do you wanna do?"

"Can we cuddle for a little while, maybe make out some more?" Jeff gave him a suggestive smirk.

Nick laughed, "Well, I don't see why not." He leaned in and pressed his lips against Jeff's. A few minutes and they were right back where they started. Shirts were off (Well, Jeff's was already off) and the blond was putty in Nick's hands.

"Nicky please, my pants are killing me." Nick bit his bottom lip. He ran his hands down to the waist band of Jeff's pants, and tugged them off. Jeff let out a sigh of relief, and then looked Nick straight in the eye. Then it dawned on him his boyfriend might not be ready for this, he decided to let him take control. "You give the word and we`ll stop okay, no matter what I want."

"I'm fine Jeffy." Nick said, smiling at his boyfriend, "I just want to make sure you're ready."

Jeff nodded "I'm ready" he spread his legs out more "Just- be careful, I'm still not quite sure how this works with guys."

Nick tugged off his own pants, and kissed Jeff again. "We don't have to go all the way if you don't want to."

Jeff expression waved a little "Maybe- can we just possibly do a b*** for now we just-we don't have any lube or condoms or anything." He was stammering and his breath was becoming heavier.

Nick smiled, and kissed him. "Relax Jeffy. We'll take this slow." He kissed down Jeff's chest. He was just reaching the hem of his boxers, when the door opened.

Jeff heard a wolf whistle he turned his head to see Trent at the door with a devilish grin on his face "Trent you pervert get out, get out now!" Trent closed the door, but the moment was ruined.

Nick groaned, and rested his head on Jeff's chest. "Your friends have the worst timing."

"Why are they now solely my friends" he tried to make the moment light, but it was kind of hard to do when he felt like he was about to explode.

"Because I refuse to associate with them anymore" Nick grumbled.

"Dido Jesus, Mary, and Joseph I`m going to kill that boy for ruining this" Now that Jeff`s mind wasn't so fogged up he got a good look at a shirtless Nick. He was buff for one, he did a good job of hiding it, but boxing did him good. He looked down at himself, skinny as a twig with most of his bones still sticking out. Next to Nick he looked like a walking skeleton, thanks to his late eating disorder. How did Nick even stand looking at him?

Nick could tell something was off with Jeff. He lifted his face off his boyfriend's chest and frowned at him. "What's wrong, Jeffy?"

"It`s just- look at you and look at me. You look healthy, and I`m this" he motioned down "I`ve been shirtless for two day how are you standing it and not dragging me to the cafeteria or something?"

"Jeffy you're perfect, you're like...my angel. No one sees me like you do. No one gets me like you do. You're perfect to me. 100% sheer perfection. I don't see all the little flaws that you see. I see my beautiful, perfect Jeffy, who I love very much." Nick kissed Jeff, just to reiterate that he loved him. "Okay...Angel." he said smiling at the nickname.

Jeff's eyes filled with tears. No one had ever called him perfect before. Everyone just told him he needed to eat more, and then he would be okay, even after the doctor said he was fine they still did it.

Nick started singing softly

So, don't you worry your pretty little mind

People throw rocks at things that shine

And life makes love look hard

The stakes are high, the water's rough

But this love is ours

2h ago"I love you, Angel." Nick said, and kissed Jeff's forehead.

"I love you too Nicky so, so much." Happy tears were still flowing.

"Good." Nick said, happily. "Because, I, love, you, more, than, anything." he punctuated each word with a kiss on Jeff's face. Jeff laughed as the kisses started to tickle as Nick got closer to his neck. Nick continued kissing down Jeff's neck, smiling at his boyfriend's laugh. He loved that laugh. Jeff laughed up until Nick got to a pressure point on his neck then he started m*** again. Nick kissed the pressure point again, before starting to kiss down Jeff's chest. Jeff was starting to lose control and the pressure in his abdomen was becoming unbearable.

"Nicky I'm close I'm going to-" He screamed as his vision went white.

Nick sat up, and chuckled, "Well, I guess the mood came back after all." Jeff laid there got a few minutes catching his breath waiting for his vision to return to normal and his ears to stop ringing. Nick got up and grabbed a pair of boxers from Jeff's top drawer, and a washcloth from the bathroom. "Figured you might want these." he said smiling.

"Thanks" Jeff took the items and took a look under his boxers to see how bad the mess was. He slipped the wash cloth in and started to clean up most of it so he didn't get any on the floor when he walked to the bathroom. Jeff wondered if Nick was comfortable enough to just have him take them off.

Nick tried to calm himself down as Jeff took care of things. Just then he heard the door across the hall close. He ran to the bathroom door "Jeffy hurry up Blaine's back! We have to go attack him for info! I have to find out how his date was!" By this point he was bouncing up and down in excitement.

"Okay, okay" Jeff balled up his boxers and placed them in the laundry hamper, ran out the bathroom door, and changed into his cloths. "Alright now we can attack Blaine, gosh that sounded bad." He chuckled and opened the dorm door "Wait" he fixed Nick's hair before letting him go out.

Nick ran across the hall to Blaine's room and pounded on the door. "Blainey days, open up!" he sang. "Jeffy and I want to hear all about your date." He grabbed Jeff's hand and kissed his cheek, just because he could.

Blaine opened the door looking a little annoyed "What are you yelling about? I wasn`t on a date" Jeff looked at him with suspicion. If he wasn't on a date why was he blushing?

"Trent totally told on you." Nick said, still bouncing. "He saw you leave with the cute spy from McKinley!"

"Well yeah we hung out but, we didn't go on a date. Were just friends, if that yet." He paused as if he was contemplating on telling us more. "Why would you listen to anything Trent tells you anyways? He just a pervert who always jumps to conclusions anyways... I mean he's a good friend and all but, seriously sometimes he just needs to be locked in his dorm."

Nick sighed, "I didn't listen to Trent, Blainey-days. I looked in your eyes. I know you. You may not admit it yet, but you like him." He bopped Blaine on the nose.

"Whatever, look it's getting late and I'm tired, goodnight you two." He shut the door with a blush still on his face.

"Ah young love" Jeff said jokingly.

Nick shook his head at his friend's ignorance. "He disappoints me." He shook his head like a disappointed father. "Shall we head back to our room Angel?" He said fancily, offering Jeff his arm.

"Yes we shall, don't worry everybody moves at their own pace Nicky. He'll stop denying it eventually." He linked his arms with Nick's "And when he does we'll be there to tell him 'I told you so'"

"I guess" Nick sighed, dramatically. They walked back into their dorm room. "What shall we do now? I'm not tired, although if you want to go to sleep. I can be Edward." He winked at his boyfriend.

"You did not just reference freaking Twilight" Jeff dead panned then smirked mischievously.

"Uh-oh I don't like that look." Nick said, at the look on his boyfriend's face. "Angel, whatever you're thinking, I'm sorry and I love you."

"No it's nothing bad, it's just that it's late so no one will be in the training room right? And I said I'd teach you self-defense, you want to start?"

"I guess. We're only dead if we get caught." Nick said with a shrug. "Are you sure your back's gonna be okay?"

"Yeah should be fine, we`ll just do simple stuff in here like posture or something. Trust me it sounds stupid but, it`s actually a big part of fighting." he guided Nick to the mirror "Now head up, shoulders back and relaxed, spine straight."

"This is boring." Nick whined after they'd been doing this for about five minutes. "Can we do something else, please, Jeffy?"

Jeff smacked Nick`s head lightly with a book "No, this is important, either you get this right or all your moves will be off. You need to look confident and make your opponent think you`re not scared, if you do that you`ve already lost half the fight!" Nick still looked skeptical "Nicky, when I protected you from Trevor did I look scared?"

"No." Nick admitted. "But I'm bored Jeff!" He said again. He really didn't want to sit still right now, and practicing posture wasn't exactly moving around.

"Nick I hate to break it to you but, it`s still not right." He placed a book on top of his head, it fell within seconds.

"I'm not some freakin' princess." Nick grumbled, "I don't need to balance a stupid book on my head."

Jeff sighed, clearly frustrated "Fine, if you're so keen on skipping steps" he cleared a place on the floor "Show me what you know, from boxing and everything." He had a plan to teach Nick a lesson, it was kind of sneaky, kind of cruel but, he needed to learn more patience if he was going to learn anything from him later.

"I don't wanna." Nick said, crossing his arms, and pouting. He knew he was acting like a child, but he didn't want to do this anymore, and he was tired, but he didn't want to go to bed. He had a lot of sugar earlier.

Jeff just sat there stunned "So, you say you want to skip ahead, then I do it and you don't want to do that either. Do you want my help or not!" He was getting angry with Nick now, he was trying his best to help him but, he didn't seem motivated at all.

"I don't know!" Nick said, bursting into tears. The sugar was really starting to wear off. "I'm just really tired!"

Jeff gave Nick a hug "Then why didn't you just say so, I could have just left this for tomorrow or something" he wiped the tears away and tugged Nick to bed. "I'm sorry for getting mad, it's just, as stupid and boring it seems it's important. You can't just skip it. You need to respect me and the way I teach you if you want this done right, okay?"

Nick sniffled, and nodded. He burrowed his face in Jeff's chest, and breathed deeply just smelling that smell that was just Jeff. "Don't go." He mumbled half asleep already.

"I won't" Jeff tucked them both in the bed. He was starting to get tired himself. "Night Nicky."


	8. Chapter 8

**This is my rp with dmhello make sure to review on both of our stories! :)**

Chapter 8

The next morning when Nick woke up, and recalled the night before he was mortified. He couldn't believe he how he'd acted. He had been acting like a two year old. He decided to just be quiet all day. Then he couldn't embarrass himself. He would only speak when necessary. Jeff knew something was off about Nick, he was never this quiet. He let it go for most of the day, he was still a little angry with him about last night. About noon he couldn't take it anymore

"Okay, Nick you've been quiet all day. You're never quiet what's wrong?"

"I just feel quiet I guess." Nick said. He hated lying to Jeff, but he really just didn't feel like embarrassing himself anymore. He'd done enough of that lately. He was sick and tired of crying.

"Alright" Jeff was skeptical, Nick was obviously lying through his teeth, but what could he do? He couldn't force Nick to tell him the truth, no more that he could force Jeff.

Nick stayed silent for the rest of the day. He felt really bad for lying to Jeff. He'd never done that before. He felt like such a horrible person. He locked himself in the bathroom, and just cried.

"Nicky, you okay in there?" He had been in there for 5 minutes and Jeff was starting to get worried. Nick didn't answer him "Nicky, please open up, you're scarring me."

Nick tried to stand to get the door, he pulled the sleeves of his blazer over the cuts, but he was to week. "Jeff..." he said, before his vision faded to black.

Jeff heard a thud and started pounding on the door "Nicky, Nicky please open the door!" He pulled on the door nod as hard as he could but, it was no use. He bolted to Blaine's room "Blaine, call 9-1-1 hurry!" Jeff tried to think of a way to unlock the door, and then he grabbed a screw driver and started to undo its hinges.

Nick felt like he was floating. Everywhere was blackness, enveloping him like a dark blanket. Part of him wanted to give in and just float in the blackness, but another part couldn't stop thinking of Jeff. Nick had to get back to him.

Jeff finally got the door opened, well not so much as opened so much as broken. He slipped through and Jeff's heart dropped. Nick was lying on the floor with blood on the floor. "Nicky, no please no." He quickly checked Nick's pulse, he was alive. Jeff unrolled his sleeve to see two slash marks on his left arm.

Nick opened his eyes, and blinked at the harsh light. "Where am I?" he asked his voice coming out raspy

"Nicky, you're awake" Jeff hugged him "It's okay, Blaine called the ambulance and I asked him to get your dad" he started sobbing "My god you're alive"

"I'm fine Angel. What happened exactly?" Nick asked slowly.

"You locked yourself in the bathroom, and then I guess you cut yourself then passed out." Jeff responded still sobbing.

Nick blinked. He didn't remember doing that. "I'm sorry, Jeffy." he whispered. "I don't remember, but I'm sorry."

"Promise you won't do it again. Please Nicky I can't lose you too."

"I promise." Nick said, hugging Jeff tightly to his chest "Just promise me I'll never lose you. You mean to much to me Angel."

"I'll do my best" Jeff kissed him on the lips then got the toilet paper and started to roll it on Nick's cuts to stop the bleeding.

Nick winced as Jeff wrapped his arm. It burned. "Can we cuddle after this?" Nick asked trying to take his mind off the pain.

"Yes and maybe a little more than cuddling" Jeff kissed him again to distract him from the pain. The EMTs finally came in the room.

"Okay kid, we`re going to put you on a stretcher take you to the hospital alright?" One of them said

"Why is the door broken?" The other said, he looked quite young

"The door was locked so I had to take off the hinges to get in." Jeff answered

"Smart"

"I don't want to go." Nick said grumpily. "Not unless Jeff can come too. And even then I go under protest."

"Alright he can come."

"Nicky you have to go, you lost too much blood to stay here, see." Jeff motioned to all the red liquid on the floor.

Nick started to feel sick. Had he really lost that much blood? "Alright let's go." He tried to stand up, but he quickly fell back down. One of the EMTs tried to carry him, but Nick swatted them away. "No! I will not be carried, unless Jeffy carries me." He crossed his arms and glared at the EMTs.

Jeff gave the head EMT an apologetic look and helped Nick to the stretcher in the hallway, and then they were headed to the elevator and out the door.

"I hate these things." Nick grumbled "I hate being made a spectacle of."

"I know Nicky, let's just focus on getting you better." Jeff tried to stay calm, but his face was still drained and white and his eyes still filled with fear over thinking Nick was dead.

"You okay Angel?" Nick asked, noticing how pale Jeff looked.

"Just shaken up" he got into the ambulance and noticed Nicks blood was on his hands. "I think- I'm going to sick" Nick rubbed Jeff's back as he threw up into the container that the EMTs had given him.

"Are you sure you're alright Jeffy?" he asked concerned.

"No-no I'm not okay Nicky" he opened his eyes and tried to swallow back the rest of his bile. "All the blood, Nicky I thought you were dead."

"I'm fine Jeffy." Nick said, smiling softly at him. "I'm right here."

"I know that now" he hugged Nick tight "let's just get you taken care of"

Nick had to stay the night at the hospital under suicide watch. He hadn't been happy with it. He grumbled the whole time. Finally, he gave up and just turned on the TV to the movie channel. He smiled. "Look Jeffy it`s Twilight."

Jeff groaned "Oh god no" he sat next to Nick. "You've got to be bloody joking, they're just staring at each other. It's creepy."

"I'm not joking!" Nick said "and don't diss Twilight. I happen to like it."

"I like the concept and the plot's kind of cool, but other than that I don't really like it."

Nick turned to Jeff with a mock serious gaze. "Jeffy, I don't think I can date you anymore."

"Very funny" Jeff said roiling his eyes "I'll still watch it with you if you really want to watch it that bad."

"Yay" Nick clapped his hands together. "Jeffy, I'm hungry. Could you get the call button for me?"

Sure he reached the remote and called the nurse down.

"Is something the matter?"

"Sorry, no we just want some food. What do you want Nicky?" Nick thought about it for a minute.

"Can I have some soup please? Did you want anything, Angel?"

"Soup`s fine for me" Jeff said smiling, he was a bit hungry. He slipped back into bed with Nick and rested his head on his shoulders.

Nick snuggled into Jeff's hair. "Your hair smells nice." He mumbled.

"Thanks" he kissed Nick "you smell pretty nice too"

"I probably smell like blood." Nick said wrinkling his nose.

"No you don`t, they cleaned your cuts before they bandaged them remember? Nicky if you smelled like blood I wouldn't be here. I`d be in the bathroom, vomiting okay?"

"K." Nick said, snuggling closer to Jeff. "Why do you put up with me Jeffy?"

"Because I love you, and you put up with me, so all I could do is return the favor."

Nick smiled against Jeff's hair. "At least we can leave in the morning."

"Yeah" Jeff was glad they didn`t have to stay in the hospital more than a night, he really hated this place. "Two things I want to do tomorrow, or the next day if you`re not feeling well. One, get hamburger, I haven`t had one yet and people keep telling me I need to. Two, go to the Cinema, can we?"

"We can do whatever you want Jeffy." Nick said kissing his hair.

"Yes!" Jeff got really excited "There`s still a lot of American stuff I want to try too, like you`re pancakes, or um... oh Thanksgiving!"

Nick laughed, "They don't have Thanksgiving in England?"

"Thanksgiving originally was the celebration of the pilgrims or whatever successfully settling into the Americas... why would we have that?" Jeff said with a grin

"I don't know." Nick said with a shrug. "I just never really thought about it. And don't they have movie theaters in England?"

"We have movie theaters, we just call them Cinemas. The term 'theater' is used more for like-stage theaters I guess?" Jeff paused to make sure his explanation made sense. "Like Broadway but, smaller and everywhere"

"Oh." Nick said nodding. "What movie should we go see?"

"Big Hero 6" He suggested.

"Okay." Nick said nodding.

Jeff hugged Nick out of anticipation "Great because I have been dying to see it, and I listened to the track that 'Fall Out Boy' made for this movie and it's seriously the best song ever!"

"You'll have to play it for me sometime." Nick said sleepily.

"I would do it right now but, I left my phone in our room" Jeff's stomach growled. "I wish that nurse would hurry up, my stomach going to be eating itself soon."

"Mm hmm" Nick said, his eyes closing. He'd just rest for a few minutes. Jeff saw him doze off and smiled. He tucked him in so he'd be more comfortable and kissed him on the head

"Night, Love."

Nick woke up to the bright sun shining "It`s morning?" He asked groggily.

Jeff woke up to Nick stirring in the bed. He groined and rolled to his side. "Nicky, go back to sleep, please."

"But I never got my soup." Nick said sadly. "Why didn't you wake me up?"

"I tried, but you were out like a light, sorry." Jeff squeezed his hand. "Now please let me sleep, your sister kept me up half the night." He pointed to Nikki who was sitting with the rest of his family.

"Hey guys!" Nick said, smiling guiltily at his parents.

"Nicolas you're up! you're okay right?" Mrs. Duval asked worry pooling in her dark eyes.

"I'm fine Mom." Nick reassured. "I was stupid to do what I did, but I'm not suicidal I promise. I've got too much to live for." His gaze shifted to Jeff.

"I'm glad to hear that. Now what on earth where you thinking! You have me and your father heart attacks! You promised me you would never do this sort of thing!" she exploded then after a few breaths she calmed right back down "Nick... Why?"

"I just...I just..." Nick didn't know how to explain it to his mom. Only Jeff knew these things about him. He felt the tears burning in his eyes, and he wished to everything that Jeff would wake up. Jeff heard Nick sniffing he turned to him and saw him crying

"Nicky, what's wrong?" He wrapped his arms around his shoulders.

"I just...I can't...explain what they want." he said, burying his face in Jeff's chest.

"Just... Try, please Nicky I don't know why you did this either."

"I just..." he lay back in the hospital bed, and closed his eyes trying to gather his thoughts. "I just felt so stupid. I...I acted really stupid toward Jeff, and I just...have some other stuff going on. And it was all just too much. I'm sorry." He buried his face back in Jeff's chest waiting to get yelled at.

"Nicky" Jeff stroked his hair "is that what this is about?"

"Sort of" Nick said, quietly. "It's kind of about the other thing to, the big thing." He said, referring to his dyslexia.

"Why didn't you tell me? I could have helped you."

"I just thought you would think I was being a baby again." He noticed his parents quietly leaving. "I wanted to try and handle something myself. I feel like I depend on you too much. It's not like I don't appreciate it, but I just didn't want to bother you."

"Nick, you hear me right now okay? You were never, nor will you ever be a baby or a bother to me. Helping you is a privilege for me, I like that you tried for yourself, but if your struggling enough to hurt yourself..." Jeff lip started quivering. "Ask me next time. Promise me you'll never do it again."

"I promise, Jeffy. Please just make me normal." He started sobbing against Jeff's chest.

"But I don't want you to be normal. I want you to be you. Normal is boring. You're exciting and, spontaneous, and level headed, and sometimes flat out crazy and I love that. You have dyslexia, so what, it makes you more you. My Nicky. Anyone who says otherwise is either selling you something, or is just not right in the head and dealing with their own crap."

Nick sniffled "What did I do to deserve you Jeffy?"

"Be you" Jeff kissed Nick like his life depended on it.

Nick snuggled into Jeff's side. "I love you so much Jeffy."

"I love you too" Jeff snuggled into Nick "can I sleep now?"

Nick sighed and laughed, "Yes, Jeffy you can sleep now. There's a Harry Potter marathon on I can watch." Jeff dozed off to the Hedwig theme and didn't wake up for another two hours. He understood now why Nick meant by 'Nikki could be annoying.' Nick wondered what Nikki had done to make Jeff so tired. The girl in question walked in.

"Nikki, what did you do to Jeff?"

"I just asked him why his voice was so weird" she said innocently "Then I asked him about England, it sounds fun. Can we go to England Nicky, please, please?"

"Why would you say his voice is weird?" Nick asked surprised. "And maybe sometime we can go to England." Just then the detective walked in.

"We're looking for Jeff Sterling." he said.

"Why?" Nick asked.

"We found his father." the detective said. Nick shook him awake

"What? I`m up, I`m up" he sat up to see the detective standing at the door "Nicky, what is he doing here?"

"We found your father."

Jeff`s eyes went wide, he didn't know what to say. He swallowed a lump in his throat "Where?" was all Jeff could croak out.

"In England" The detective answered simply. Nick felt his heart speed up. Would Jeff have to go live with his dad?

"But, I can still stay here right?" He looked at the detective pleading. "Please, I can`t leave, I have school, and Nick I can`t just abandon everything."

"No you don't have to leave, but you do have to go visit him." the detective said.

Jeff breathed a sigh a relief "Can the Duval`s come?"

"I'm afraid only one person can come with you." the detective said.

Jeff looked over to Nick with a grin that would make the Cheshire cat jealous. "Nicky, will you be my plus one?"

"Why Jeffy I thought you'd never ask." Nick said playfully, but he then grew serious "But what about my parents?"

"Yeah, I mean you can`t have two minors walking around town unsupervised, right?" Jeff said trying to make it sound like bringing them along wasn`t a logical thing not to do, he was good at that.

The detective looked thoughtful for a moment "I'll talk to my supervising officer. Excuse me." He stepped into the hall for a moment, and came back. "I'm sorry boys, but only one person is allowed. An officer will meet you in London though when you arrive."

"Oh great, we're being watched by a Bobbie, fan-bloody-tastic." Jeff flopped on the bed.

"Maybe it won't be so bad." He said trying to persuade Jeff, but even then Nick frowned with disappoint. He had really hoped they all could go. Nikki would be so disappointed. On the other hand he was also rather excited. He would get to see where Jeff used to live. Maybe they could even meet some of Jeff's friends, although Nick was a bit nervous about meeting Carrie. The detective left, and Nick turned to Jeff. "What are you thinking Angel?"

"What are we going to do when we meet him? What if he already has a family. I could have step-siblings and not even know it. I mean I don't even know what he looks like. What if he completely forgot about me, and I'm just going show up on his door!"

Nick hugged the blonde to him. He could tell Jeff was really nervous, even more so than he as saying. "Everything will be fine, baby. I'm sure he's been notified. And if you do have family there then, you should at least try and get to know them. Everything will be perfect. Plus, maybe at some point we can ditch everybody and you can show me around."

Jeff laughed "Yeah, I mean I might not be the best tour guide for London, but I can show you a few cool places."

"Maybe we'll get a chance to see Carrie too." Nick said slowly.

"I guess if she can make it all the way from Berkshire. We're not Londoners remember?" Jeff considered if he even wanted to see Carrie or the others again. "It would be kind of nice to see all of them again, and I'd love for them to meet you."

Nick's heart fluttered when Jeff said that. "You...you want them to meet me?"

"You're my boyfriend, why wouldn't I want to show you off to everyone? I'm not going to leave you in the hotel room with the Bobbie while I go out with my mates."

"I guess I'm just still not used to having people want me around. I always feel like the Warblers didn't want me around, like I was kind of an outsider." Nick said.

"I'm sure that's not true, what about Blaine he's helped you lots of times? Wes and David have always included you as much as possible, and Trent is always ready to do something for anyone." Jeff protested "how long have you been going to Dalton?"

"A year and a half." said Nick.

"And in that year and a half how much have you let them get to know you?"

"Some. I...I don't want to get hurt again. I've gotten hurt a lot in the past." Nick said his voice thick. "I just don't have that much left of my heart to give."

"Can I donate some of mine?" Jeff said "You`re going to get hurt in this world, it`s just a universal fact. You don`t have a choice in that sense Nicky." He paused to think how to word his point correctly "Who you get hurt by, that is what you must choose. I`d rather get hurt by you that someone I don`t know all that well. The closer the bond you have with a person, the easier it is to forgive them and move on."

"I guess you're right, Jeffy. But what do I do about it?" Nick asked, biting his bottom lip nervously.

"Just open up to them more, let them in. I know it`s scary, but I`m sure they'll return the favor and then some later on." Jeff pulled Nick in close. "I`m not close with them too much either yet. We can work on it together."

Nick nodded, and snuggled into Jeff. "I love you so much Jeffy."

"Love you more" Jeff ran his finger up Nick`s spine and kissed him hard.

Nick moaned a little "Jeffy."

"Yeah Love?" He said as he wrapped his arms around Nick`s neck, bringing him in closer.

"If you do something like that again, I will not be responsible for my actions." Nick said. Jeff gave him a mischievous grin back and pulled Nick on top of him, as he ran his hand alone his back. This time his action was even slower.

Nick moaned "Jeff, what if my parents come back or Nikki?" He moaned again.

"You could always lock the door and pull the curtain back, giving us a heads up." Jeff's breathing rate was starting increase.

Nick got up, and locked the door. He pulled the curtain enough that they could see out, but people couldn't see in. Then he got back in bed. "Now where were we?" he asked, pressing his lips against Jeff's.

Jeff moaned and wrapped his legs around Nick so their cores were pressed together. He felt Nick lick his lips and he happily opened his mouth to let him in. Nick moaned when Jeff opened his mouth, and his hips bucked forward, involuntarily. Jeff gasped as Nick's hips met his own, he bucked up to meet him half way to create even more friction, and his pants were starting to get less comfortable.

Nick's hands slipped under Jeff's shirt running his hands up his boyfriend's smooth chest. Jeff broke their kiss for a second so Nick could slip his shirt over his head. He slipped Nick's off, and then kissed him again.

"I trust you" Jeff whispered and gave Nick complete control. Nick kissed down Jeff's chest. He paused, and licked at one of his n***. He smiled when Jeff moaned beneath him. He continued down his body, and stopped at the waistband of Jeff's pants.

"Are you sure about this?" he asked Jeff.

Jeff nodded "I never been surer." He stared at Nick "please."

He nodded, and leaned up to press his lips to Jeff's. He slipped his hand down lower. Jeff moaned and spread his legs even further when Nick pressed his hand to the bulge in his pants. He instantly started to buck his hips. Jeff tried to keep it together, but he was getting wetter and wetter by the second. The brunette slipped Jeff`s jeans and underwear down. Nick shifted his pants getting quite tight at the sight. He leaned down and took Jeff into his mouth. Jeff was a mumbling mess by the time Nick had his hot, talented mouth on him. He slipped his hand in Nick's hair. Nick dropped a little lower, and vibrated his throat a little. Nick was a wizard. That's it, he had to be, he had attended Hogwarts he is a wizard. Because Nick's tongue was magic, doing everything right, hitting all the right spots. Jeff was having trouble delaying his high any further.

"Nicky, I'm close." Nick just hummed and sunk a little lower. Jeff's hips started to buck. He gripped the sheets and bit his lip "Nicky I- I can't"

"Just let go, Jeffy." Nick said, and then he went back down and ran his tongue along Jeff's length. The blond thrust and wailed as he reached his high. He almost passed out from the pleasure.

Nick leaned up, and kissed Jeff. "You okay there Angel?"

"I'm okay" Jeff weakly responded waiting for his vision and breathing to return to normal. Once his mind cleared he noticed how tight Nick's pants were. Nick shifted trying to make his pants looser. He didn't want Jeff to do anything he didn't want to. Jeff composed himself and lightly tugged on Nick's waist band asking for permission.

"Are you sure?" Nick asked.

"Yeah, I'm ready." Jeff answered simply. Nick laid back, and waited for Jeff to do something. He slipped Nick's pants and boxers off. Jeff sucked in air when he saw how much bigger Nick was than him, he was supposed to fit all of that in his mouth?

"Do what feels comfortable." Nick said when he saw Jeff's wide expression.

"I just-didn't aspect you be so large." He removed Nick garments completely. Jeff carefully stated to lick at the head. Nick moaned. It felt so good. Jeff worked his way down slowly, getting used to having Nick in his mouth. Nick whimpered. Jeff was so good. His mouth felt like Heaven. Jeff worked as far as he could on Nick's length, but he choked when he tried to fit most of it in, stupid gag reflex.

"Jeffy!" Nick exclaimed, at the choking sound.

Jeff released him with a pop "I'm okay." He paused to figure out how to deal with this. He couldn't fit all of it but, he couldn't just leave Nick like this. He started to suck more on the head and hand job the rest. Nick whined. It felt so good.

"So close. Jeffy, I'm so close"

"Go ahead" Jeff ran his tongue along the vein and then got ready at the tip.

Nick saw white, and heard a ringing in his ears, as he moaned, "Jeff." Jeff swallowed his load as fast as he could but, it just kept on coming (No pun intended.) Some of the white substance started to dribble out of his mouth. When Nick opened his eyes, the first thing he noticed was that Jeff had some of Nick's...stuff on his chin. The second thing he noticed was that it looked really hot.

"Um." he cleared his throat "Jeffy you've got a something right." he pointed to the spot on his chin. "There." Jeff tried to swallow the stuff still in his mouth faster, but it was hard. One it was thick, two it wasn't the best tasting thing in the world. Jeff really wished Nick ate more sugar before this.

"Jeffy, you know you don't have to swallow it." Nick said, seriously. 'But you swallowed all of mine' he wanted to argue. Instead Jeff just spit the remaining stuff in the waste basket, there wasn't much left of it anyways.

Nick giggled. "Jeff, seriously you didn't have to swallow it if you didn't want to."

Jeff whipped his mouth "You swallowed mine."

Nick smiled, "Jeff, I swallowed because I like to. You don't have to. I won't offend me. Some people just don't like the taste, and that's fine. You do whatever makes you comfortable."

"Wait, how do you know you like to. You`ve done this before?"

Nick blushed, "I...um...tried my own."

"Oh" he responded softly. Out of curiosity he asked "How does mine taste?"

"I don't exactly know how to explain it." Nick said, still blushing slightly, "It's kind of salty, but sweet at the same time."

"Probably because I eat nothing but sugar and potato crisps" He giggled as he crawled next to Nick on the bed to rest. Nick yawned, and cuddled next to Jeff.

Just as his eyes were starting to drift shut he mumbled "The door's still locked."

"And were still naked" Jeff yawned back as he grabbed Nick's strong arms and placed them around his bony waste. For the first time in years Jeff didn't care that his hip bond was probably cutting into Nick. He was happy. Nick laid his head on Jeff's chest. His heart beat lulled Nick to sleep. Jeff followed soon after but, not before pulling the blanket around the pair. He imagined they would be cold when they woke up. He vaguely heard something that sounded like the door being unlocked when he was dozing off.


	9. Chapter 9

chapter 9

When Nick woke up he was face-to-face with his mother.

"Nicholas, why don't you wake up Jeffery." his mom said. Nick knew something was wrong, because his mom used his whole name. He turned and lightly shook Jeff "Jeffy, Angel, wake-up."

Jeff opened his eyes slightly to see Mrs. Duval hanging over them. His eyes shot opened and pulled the blanket more to cover his still shirtless skeleton chest. "Mrs. Duval how- how'd you get in here?"

"It's a hospital, Jeffery. They have keys for the doors." Mrs. Duval said. "Now, why don't you two boys tell me why the door was locked? Also tell me about the detective who told us that you two will be leaving the country the day after tomorrow." Nick then noticed that his dad was in the room as well.

"Wait, the day after tomorrow, we're leaving that soon?!" Jeff started to freak out in his mind. Two days, that's it, that's all the time he had until what was probably going to be the most awkward meeting of his life.

"Yes." Mrs. Duval said. "Didn't they tell you that?" She paused. "Anyway, what I want to know is why was the door locked boys?"

"No they didn't" Jeff blushed like mad trying to find the right words. How do you tell you're guardian that you and her son blew each other?

"We were just discussing some things Mom." Nick said quickly. His mom opened her mouth about to say something when Nikki charged in. Nick sighed, he had never been more thankful for his sister.

"You're going to England without me!" Jeff turned his head to see Nikki looking quite upset.

"Nikki, honey we don't really have a choice." Nick said. "We tried to make it so you could come. Didn't we Jeffy?"

"Yeah, I wanted all of us to go but, he said only one person could go with me, and a Bobbie watching us. I'm really sorry Nikki."

She pouted, but said. "It's okay Jeff." She ran around to the other side of the bed, and hugged him. "Love you."

Jeff embraced her back "Love you too Nikki." She let go of him go and frowned.

"I'm gonna miss you guys." Nick said sadly. He really wished his parents and sister could come.

"I know sweetie but, maybe we'll go to England some other time. Summer possibly, maybe" Nick's mom suggested. "Now why don't you and your daddy get us all some lunch, I need to talk to the nurse about something." Jeff thought he imagined it but, he could have sworn her dark eyes glanced over to him. Once they all left Jeff got up and got dressed while handing Nick his clothes. Jeff couldn't help but ease drop on the conversation between the nurse and Mrs. Duval "... I'm just concerned about his weight..." He wanted to cry.

Nick noticed the look on Jeff's face. "Angel what's wrong?"

"She-" he started backing up to the bed "they're talking about me."

Nick frowned "Why would they be talking about you?"

"They're talking about my weight" Jeff said softly "she says she concerned about it, Nicky I'm scared."

"Jeffy, they can't do anything. You're perfect. And as long as you're eating, and not over exercising, they can't really make you do much. I won't let them. No one's going to hurt you Angel. I promise." Nick said hugging Jeff tightly.

Jeff pulled Nick into a hug "I love you Nicky, and thank you." He cuddled into his neck and gripped his shirt, he didn't want to let go.

The blond soon fell asleep and Mrs. Duval came back in. "I can't believe you Mom." Nick said, shaking his head.

"Excuse me?" Mrs. Duval responded

"Jeff heard what you were talking about with that nurse, mom!" Nick said, feeling very upset with his mother. "How do you think that made him feel? He's already insecure as it is. There's nothing wrong with Jeff Mom, he's perfect."

"Nick I was just concerned for him, that`s all, I wasn`t signing him up for treatment of anything of that sort. I just wanted to make sure he`s healthy, I`m sorry"

Nick pouted. "I can take care of him. He's my angel." He lovingly ran his hands through Jeff's hair. "Thank-you for being concerned though Mom."

"Do you know his weight right now Nicky?" She asked

"He didn't say earlier." Nick said frowning slightly. Now he was starting to get worried. "He always tells me everything." He said feeling hurt.

"Look, all I know is that not slipping back into anything, no matter what it is, is very hard. I just want to make sure he`s okay." She paused to kiss Nick on the forehead "I`m sure with you he will be just fine."

Nick felt very unsettled after his mom left. Was Jeff slipping back into his eating disorder? He'd have to talk to him when he woke up. For now he was going to sleep next to his boyfriend.

Jeff woke up to Nikki shaking him awake. "Jeff, Nicky, wake up, we have food!" He sat and saw Mr. Duval holding a McDonald's bag.

"Yum" Nick said. He watched Jeff to make sure he ate.

"Nick why are you staring at me, not that I'm not enjoying it" He said as he slowly ate his fish wrap and look sips of his soda.

"Nothing" Nick said, quickly blushing at being caught. "I'll tell you later."

"Okay then" he said as he took another bite. They finished up lunch "so?"

"It's probably nothing." Nick said, "But it was something my mom said while you were asleep. She said not slipping back into anything, no matter what it is, is very hard. And I got scared that maybe you were slipping back into your eating disorder."

"What, Nicky why would you think that?" Jeff responded shocked "Nicky I'm fine, the last thing I want to do is lose anything. Last time I checked I was 41" Nick's expression widened "oh kilograms, not pounds."

"Oh. You scared me there for a minute Jeffy." Nick said, relieved.

"Yeah sorry, I keep forgetting you're not on the metric system." Jeff sipped on his drink he still hasn't finished "I think it's like, 90 pounds or something, I don't know, I've never been good with conversions."

Nick frowned. "That's still about ten pounds off Jeffy. I'm not trying to nag, but I just want you healthy Angel."

"I know but, I've tried to gain more since it happened and I'm still working on it." Jeff said "I'm trying though"

"I trust you baby." said Nick. He pulled Jeff close to him. "I just let what my mom said get to me." He kissed Jeff's forehead. "I love you Angel."

"I love you too, and I know she was just being concerned so don't be mad at her. It's just what mom's do. It`s her job to be worried"

"I know" Nick sighed. "We leave tomorrow."

"I know" Jeff said half excited, half terrified.

"It's gonna be great Jeff. We need this break, just the two of us." Nick said.

"Yeah, what do you want to do when we get there? Warner Brothers is a given, what else?"

"I don't know. What is there to do?" Nick asked.

"Big Ben tower, London eye, Tower Bridge, BBC studios, Buckingham, Sherlock Holmes museum and pub, National Gallery, The British museum, um... maybe we could jump the channel and see Disney land Paris?"

"All that sounds amazing Jeffy!" Nick said excitedly. "Don't forget about your dad though. And your friends, though we won't have to see them if you don't want to."

"Yeah, that part I'm not too excited about, but I do want to want us to hang out. I'll call them tonight." Jeff smiled at the thought of seeing his mates again.

"Everything will work out Angel." Nick said kissing his head.

"I hope so" Jeff kissed Nick back "I really want this to go well. First off, you're going to need a lesson in British culture."

"What do I need to know?"

"Okay, first off this-" he did a peace sign backwards "is almost as bad as the middle finger in the U.K. Plus don't say 'pants' it means underwear. 'Pissed' means drunk, not angry, 'toss me off' means... well what we did last night." He blushed "I think those are the most common."

"Well, those are all really good things to know." Nick said.

"What else..." He tried to think of some more Faux pos he'd seen. "Oh if my friends or anyone else asks 'you alright' it's just our way if saying 'how are you,' and if you want to know where the bathroom is say 'toilet' not 'restroom.' why is it even called a restroom anyways if you don't go in there to rest?"

"I don't know." Nick said, slowly. He was feeling slightly over whelmed.

"Don't worry I'm done, and I'll help you when we're there" Jeff snuggled into Nick's chest. "We should asked if you can be released early. We still need to do a lot before we leave." He stroked Nick's hand with his thumb. "How's your wrist feeling?"

"It only hurts if I bump it really hard." Nick said

"Maybe we can get you a band or something to protect it." Jeff kissed Nick "I'd hate for you to get hurt again."

"I really don't want to make a big deal out of it." Nick said.

"Okay, I understand" Jeff dropped the topic trying to think of a new one. Just then the rest of the family walked in.

"Okay Nick, you're checked out let's get you boys back home and packed." Mr. Duval said with a grin.

Nick jumped up and ran out the door, yelling "Free!" Jeff just laughed and followed Nick and his family to the car.

"So are we going home or Dalton first?"

"All your stuff was dropped off at our house." Mrs. Duval said. "So unless you have something you absolutely need that's at Dalton, I think we can just go home."

"Good, because I could really use some home right now." Jeff was sick of being in a hospital. He wanted to just go somewhere he felt safe and not constantly reminded of his and Nick's accidents. Nick smiled when Jeff called his house home. He was the happiest boy around right now.

They entered the enormous house and Jeff flopped on the couch, completely wrenched.

Nick flopped on the couch, and cuddled into Jeff. "You're so warm."

"Jeff, Nick could you grad those books on the table and follow me please." Mrs. Duval asked carrying some of her own. Jeff huffed and did want he was told, got as many books as he could carry, and followed her down the hall. She unlocked the fancy double doors and Jeff dropped his load in shock, two floors of nothing but bound beautiful-ness.

"Why didn't you tell me you had your own library?!"

Nick appeared behind him. "I was kind of embarrassed. I'm not a fan of all the money we have, and saying we have our own library just seems like flaunting it."

Jeff's smile only got wider as he circled around the room more. It was like he was at a sweet shop. Not all of it was books thought. There were spaces on each floor for a work space. Jeff guessed this was Mr. and Mrs. Duval's work space too.

"I take from the look that you like it?" Nick asked. Jeff nodded excitedly

"I figured you could use a book for the plane ride, so take your pick. Just don't go upstairs, it's filled with dictionaries and other layer-ish stuff you won't be interested in."

Nick frowned. His parents had always let him upstairs before. Even if all that was up there was boring, they never said it was of limits. He shrugged it off, and turned to Jeff "So anything in particular you're looking for?"

"No, I mean...not really" Jeff's brain hurt from all the titles he was reading. There were so many options how could he pick one? "I guess I'll just start with fiction"

"Over there" she pointed the section out then whispered to Nick "don't let him upstairs. It's where we're keeping his birthday present." Nick looked confused "you do realize that's in two weeks right?"

"No!" Nick screamed. "I have to figure out something to do. Why does Jeff never tell me these things!?"

"Honey, he said it was on November 8th, it's October 25th now." She saw the worry in her son's eyes "I think going on this trip with him and being with him through meeting his dad will be enough for him. He doesn't seem like a wanting kind of person."

"Well, I know that Mom. But I'm going to figure out something to get him anyway, because I love him."

"Well if you think if something when you're away, just call me okay?" She hugged him and left the two alone with the books.

"So did find what you're looking for?" Nick asked.

"Yeah, I think I found one for the plane." Jeff had already cranked through the first few pages and he liked it so far. He tucked the book under his arm and was ready to go to Nick's room and pack.

"Let's go pack shall we?" Nick asked, offering Jeff his arm.

"Yes we shall" Jeff took Nick's arm as he escorted him to the brunette`s bedroom.

"What's the weather like in England right now?" Nick asked opening his closet.

"Knowing England, 50 degrees Fahrenheit and cloudy" Jeff checked on his phone "yep, around 55 with a chance of rain the whole time we're there. I swear we are the most weather-static country ever. We see a rainbow and it's the sign of the freaking apocalypse" Jeff joked.

Nick laughed. "So, sweatshirts would probably be good."

"Yeah" Jeff packed all the stuff he needed cloths for three days and a semi-formal outfit for going out

Nick packed similarly, basically just going off of what Jeff was packing. By the time they were done it was close to eleven. Nick yawned "I'm ready for bed, you?"

"Mm HM" Jeff slipped a map of London in his carry on along with the book, his phone, and a few other things. Then he grabbed his spare pajamas and got ready for bed.

The next morning Nick was woken up by his mom. It was still dark outside. He rolled over, and shook Jeff's shoulder gently.

"Jeffy, wake up Angel. It's time to go." Jeff rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and got up slowly. They got dressed and went down the stairs to Mrs. Duval making pancakes. "Pancakes" Nick all but squealed. Pancakes were his favorite, and he felt like acting childish. Jeff was surprised how thick American pancake were, but when he bit into them he melted.

"Is this your first time eating pancakes?" Nick asked.

"No, well American pancakes yes, the English ones are thinner and less sugary. You'll see when we get there." He felt like he was eating like malaise compared to Nick, but they were still good, and he was still eating.

"Pancakes are my absolute favorite." Nick said.

"Boys, time to head for the airport." Mr. Duval said entering the room.

They bolted to the bathroom, brushed their teeth, and got the suitcases and the carry-on bags and headed out to the car.

Nick was bouncing in his seat. "I'm so excited, but I'm nervous too! How you doing Jeffy?"

"I want to go, but at the same time I don't" Jeff was trying to focus on the positive of this trip being on holiday with Nick. Seeing his friends again, being back in his home country, but there was always the nagging at the back if his mind about his dad.

"Jeff, remember to at least give your dad a chance to explain. You don't have to like him, you don't have to forgive him, but at least hear him out. Okay, Angel?" Nick said kissing Jeff's cheek.

"I know, I know he was young and he had his reasons, but that's not what I'm nervous about. I've had a vague idea what he looks like from comparing me to my mum, but it's all been in my mind... until now, I'm actually going to see him."

"You're scared that he won't live up to your expectations." Nick said. Jeff nodded and slipped his hand into Nick's out if nervousness when he saw the airport sign. Nick gave his hand a squeeze. His mom and dad went off to make sure everything was set for the flight. "This is gonna be great Jeffy."

"We just need to get through the plane ride and I'm back on English soil." Now Jeff was starting to get excited.

"Oh I see our soils not good enough for you." Nick teased.

"Oh stop it, you know what I mean." He faced Nick's front and wrapped his arms around his neck.

"I know." Nick said. He wrapped his arms around Jeff's waist. When Nick touched him all the built up nerves Jeff had, seemed to slip away. He relaxed his shoulders and rested his forehead on Nick's. Nick lay his head on top of Jeff's while they waited for his parents to come back. Nick's parents came back and handed them their tickets and gave Nick his passport while Jeff got his U.K. one out. They checked in and got in the security line with Nick`s arm still wrapped around Jeff's waste.

"Jeffy you know to go through security you're going to have to let go of me." Nick said. His boyfriend was so adorable

"You're still holding on to me too, and we're not even close to the end of the queue anyways." Jeff didn't let Nick's hand slip away from his waste.

"I know just making sure you know." Nick said, pulling Jeff closer to him. They got to the security check and reluctantly had to let go off each other. Jeff placed his things on the conveyor belt and walked through the metal detector. Nick followed, and they picked up their stuff on the other side. They finally got to sit down when they arrived at the proper gate. Jeff snuggled into Nick as they waited.

And waited

And waited

"Are we ever going to leave?" Nick asked.

"Should be boarding in 15 minutes, stop complaining." Mr. Duval scolded as Jeff just huffed, and flipped yet another page of his book.

Nick pouted. "I bet if you said something he wouldn't have said anything." He grumbled to Jeff.

"He answered your question didn't he? Don't worry, only a little longer Love." He put the book mark in and held Nick's hand until they sounded they were going to start early boarding.

"Oh, thank heavens!" Nick said, grabbing his bag. "I thought we'd never leave."

"Nick, early boarding is for people who will take a while to board the plane, like wheel chaired people. Don't worry, A will be boarding soon.

"Wait" Jeff said "isn't A usually people in first class?"

"I don't know you'd have to ask my dad. I've actually never been on a plane before." Nick said, resting his head on Jeff's shoulder.

He asked Mr. Duval "Yep, I figured you have so much to worry about on this trip, the plane should be comfortable" Jeff grinned. He'd never been in first class before.

"Thanks Dad." Nick said. He was really tired, and Jeff was really comfortable. He felt his eyelids start to get heavy.

They announced they would be boarding and Mrs. Duval hugged them once, twice, a bunch of times.

"Okay last hug"

"Love you Mom. We'll call when we land." Nick said. They both waved before boarding the plane. Jeff took the window seat and Nick the middle.

"How long is this flight going to be?" Nick asked.

"Eight hours. Just sleep, it'll be less then." Jeff was also tired from waking up at 5 in the morning. Nick laid his head on Jeff's shoulder and instantly fell asleep. Jeff snuggled into Nick and fell asleep a few minutes later.

When Nick woke up it was because it was time for lunch.

"The food tastes good. That's a first for an airplane." Jeff said as he ate his lunch.

"It is pretty good." Nick agreed.

"How are you anyways, with the plane ride and everything?" Nick mentioned it was his first time flying, so Jeff wanted to check to make sure he wasn't the kind of person to get air sick. Nick seemed fine; his cheeks were red like normal.

"I'm fine. I've been asleep most of the time." Nick said.

"That's good" they finished lunch and Jeff took a look out the window to see if he could see anything. All Jeff saw was the endlessness of the Atlantic Ocean. Nothing but a gray/blue swirls and much closer white clouds.

"How much longer?" Nick asked.

"About..." Jeff adjusted his glasses and glanced at his watch "an hour and a half, lucky you, you missed most of it."

"What should we do till then?" Nick asked.

"We could watch a movie on here" he pointed to the screen on the back of the chair belonging to the people in front of them "or something else, if you can think of anything."

"How about we just talk" Nick said.

"Oh, hang on" Jeff grabbed the map of London out of his bag "we could point out were we want to go, what we want to see, unless you'd rather chat about something else."

"That sounds fine." Nick said starting to look over the map.

"Great! I've pin pointed a few places I mentioned last night, but I'm fine with anywhere in London, as long as we avoid Soho"

"Gosh, I really don't know Jeffy. The city is so big. I don't even know where to start."

"Well, when in doubt, start in the middle." They worked out their touring route from there. The seat belt light came on, and the flight attendants started going around making sure everyone was buckled.

"We're landing, Jeffy. We're landing!" Nick exclaimed excitedly as he buckled his seat.

"Yep" Jeff tried to be excited but he was too busy gripping the seat for dear life. There was a lot of turbulence so the plane bounced a lot. Nick grabbed Jeff's hand. Nick was excited, but the turbulence was kind of scaring him too.

"Almost over" Jeff whispered to Nick as he squeezed his hand. "Nick look" he pointed out the window to London. You could see The Big Ben tower and then some.

"It's beautiful." Nick breathed. It was true the city was beautiful, but the most beautiful thing that Nick saw was Jeff. The sun was catching off Jeff's hair in such a way that it almost looked like a halo around his head. "You look amazing, Angel."

Jeff blushed "Thanks Nicky, you look..." Jeff paused to find the right word to describe Nick in the sun set "you look stunning."

Nick blushed "Do not." It wasn't that Nick didn't like the way he looked. He just thought he wasn't the greatest. Jeff huffed and was going to retaliate, but more turbulence and the landing shut him up. They sat down for a few more minutes and then finally got off the plane. Jeff staggered a little getting off the gate.

"You okay, Jeffy?" Nick asked.

"Yeah I'm okay. My legs just fell asleep from sitting so long. Come on, let's get our bags." They walked to baggage claim, and found their bags.

"Where's that...what do you call police here again?" Nick asked looking around.

"London police are called bobbies" Jeff answered looking around for their escort.

"Do you see anyone that looks like a...bobby?" Nick said.

"No not yet, shouldn't they have one of those signs with our names on it?" Jeff said looking at all the people lined up with posters that seemed to have ever name but their own.

"I don't know. I've never left Westerville till now." Nick said.

"I'm only guessing from what I've seen in the movies, I`ve never flown without an escort before, and even then I usually I take the train to travel." Jeff scanned the line one more time, but again saw nothing.

"Would Jeff Sterling and Nick Duval please come to information." The P.A. sounded.

"What in the..." Jeff was stunned. Since when did people get picked up at the info desk? "Well we know we're to go now" he slipped his hand into Nick's.

They found their way to the info desk where a man in uniform stood waiting.

"I'm assuming that's a bobby?" Nick whispered in Jeff's ear.

"Yes, that's him" they walked over to the grey clothed man "hello Sir." Nick stood by shyly. He really wasn't sure what to do.

"You Jeff Sterling?" the bobby asked.

"That's right, and this is Nick Duval." He motioned to Nick who looked nervous. Jeff gave him a reassuring squeeze of the hand.

"Hello, Sir." Nick said.

"Oh, American well welcomes to the U.K. You boys ready to go?" He asked with a grin.

"I think so. You ready Jeffy?" he asked his boyfriend.

"Yeah I'm ready." Jeff adjusted the strap of his bag and grabbed his luggage handle.

"Where are we staying?" Nick asked.

"London city hotel, right next to Borough station. Come on I'll show you to the underground station."

"That's the subway" Jeff whispered to Nick as they followed their escort to the airport station.

Nick wrinkled his nose at the smell. "It smells awful down here." He whispered to Jeff.

"Breath through your mouth it helps." The bobby let them in a special entrance since Nick didn`t have an oyster card. They boarded the DLR tube 10 minutes later, transferred to the Northern tube and finally got out at Borough.

"Well that was an adventure." Nick said. He made a mental note not to take subways if they ever went to New York, or if they ever came back to London.

"Sorry for the smell, but it`s the fastest way to get around. Otherwise you get a taxi, and it`s just mayhem." the turned to the right after getting out and there was the hotel, when he said next to the station, he meant right next to it. It looked pretty nice with a restaurant at the bottom of it called Cafe Riva.

"So when exactly are we going to meet Mr. Sterling?" Nick asked.

"Tomorrow, let`s get you two checked in and settled for the night" Jeff looked over to see the clock hanging in the lobby wall. It was already 6 pm- well 18 o' clock here. Nick's stomach grumbled.

"And get some dinner." Jeff added with a giggled. They checked in and Jeff opened his and Nick's room. The officer was staying in the next one over.

"Wow." Nick said as they walked into the room.

"Yeah, it's nice" the room had two beds, a small bathroom, and a door connecting their room to the bobby's. Jeff set his luggage and flopped on the bed to the left.

"You're so far away." Nick frowned as he lay on his bed.

"We have two nights here, we could switch off" Jeff made his way over to the other bed. "Shall we order room service Mr. Duval?"

"I believe we shall, Mr. Sterling." Nick said.

"So, what do you want for dinner?" Jeff grabbed the menu off the bed side table.

"I don't know. Chicken sounds good." Nick said with a shrug. Jeff ordered Nick a chicken sandwich and fish and chips.

Nick finished his food, and then flopped back on the bed. "I am so tired. And it's only like seven-thirty."

"We can go to bed early if you want" Jeff said not nearly as done with his meal as Nick.

"Nah, we can stay up for a bit. Plus you still have to finish eating." he said. He kissed Jeff's neck.

"Is it that I eat really slowly, or you eat really fast? Can never tell" Jeff relaxed under Nick's touch.

"I don't know. I think everyone eats at their own speed." Nick said. He kissed Jeff's neck again. Jeff took a big final bite if his fish, finally done he placed it on the tray. Jeff completely turned to jelly as Nick continued to kiss down his neck. "Hmm, suddenly I'm not feeling so tired." Nick whispered in Jeff's ear. He kissed behind Jeff's ear. Jeff started whimpering as Nick pressed on the pressure point even harder. "We have to be quiet Angel." Nick said. "Can you do that for me?"

"Yeah I think so" Jeff whispered back. Nick took his shirt off then Jeff's. He started kissing down Jeff's chest. The blonde's body temperature started to increase as Nick got lower and lower. Jeff bit his lip to keep himself from moaning when Nick marked a spot on of Jeff's hip bone. Jeff started to shake with pleasure and he had to cross his legs to keep himself from getting wetter with his pre-juices.

Nick kissed back up Jeff's chest. "Getting a little wet are we?" He whispered playfully. He licked the shell of Jeff's ear. Jeff nodded and looked with Nick with pleading eyes. His pants needed to be off. Nick obliged, and started kissing back down Jeff's chest.

Jeff watched Nick go down all the to his waist band "Please." Nick hummed as if thinking about it and sucked another mark on Jeff's hip bone. Jeff grit his teeth from Nick taking his sweet time, but Nick just made another mark, moving slowly down Jeff's v-line. He was having fun making Jeff fall apart.

Jeff was gripping the sheets at this point. "Jesus, Mary, and Joseph Nick would you hurry up!" Nick smiled at Jeff's almost swearing. He sucked another mark on Jeff's v-line, low enough that he had to move the waistband of his pants. He wasn't gonna stop till he got something good from Jeff, like maybe some begging. The thought made Nick's pants grow a bit tighter.

"Nicky please" Jeff pleaded with his boyfriend, but he didn't budge "Nick either you get me off or I will cum in my pants again or I do it myself, Nicky please, please." Nick thought about it for a minute before taking Jeff's pants off. He let out a relieved breath as Nick pulled down his pants. He looked down at himself. He had a rock hard bulge, and a huge wet spot on his underwear. Nick pulled of the underwear too, and Jeff felt his tip press against his stomach. He spread his legs out to give Nick more space to work with. Nick kissed Jeff's tip as his fingers wandered farther south. Jeff started to buck his hips as Nick started to use his magic mouth on him. Nick sunk lower, and moved his hands even further south. Jeff had to muffle his moans and gasps by covering his mouth with his hands

"Nicky- I'm close." Nick moved his finger to circle Jeff's hole. Jeff tried not to moan as Nick continued.

Nick released Jeff`s length with a 'pop.' "Wait here Angel." He got up and quickly got the bottle of lube that Trent gave him when he found out Jeff and he where dating. Jeff whined as Nick moved away.

Nick crawled back on the bed, and started to slick up his fingers "You ready?" Jeff whimpered in reply. He couldn't think of a coherent reply. Nick started to push one slicked up finger into the blonde slowly, giving him time to get used to it. Jeff bit his tongue to keep his moans down. If Nick kept this up he really wouldn't last much longer. Nick inserted another finger and started so scissor Jeff. Jeff moaned.

"So close." He choked out. Nick added a third finger and sucked at Jeff's tip waiting for him to hit his high. Jeff whined, and his vision flashed white. Nick lapped up every drop of Jeff's high and continued scissoring. Jeff moaned. What was Nick doing? Nick pressed deeper into him until he pressed up against his prostate. Jeff whined loudly, "Nicky..."

"Shh Angel, we need to be quiet or the bobby might hear." He continued working Jeff's prostate with a quicker pace. Jeff bit his lip, trying to keep quiet. Nick kissed Jeff hard so he didn't have to bite his lip. Jeff saw white for the second time that night. He stopped to catch his breath after Nick broke the kiss. Nick slipped out of Jeff and grabbed a tissue to wipe his hand. He lapped up Jeff's second high and laid next to him.

"That was brilliant." Jeff said, finally catching his breath.

"You're welcome" Nick said petting his hair. Nick closed his eyes and started to fall asleep, still lazily playing with Jeff's hair. Jeff snuggled up to Nick and passed out from all his highs.


	10. Chapter 10

chapter 10

The next morning Nick was awoken by a knocking at the door.

"Time to get up boys." The bobby called through the door. Jeff shot up from being woken and winced at the sudden movement. He sat on his knees with his legs slightly spread so his rear wasn't so sore.

"You okay Angel?" Nick asked.

"Just sore. I'll be fine after I pop in the shower." Jeff slowly got up, grabbed his cloths for the day, and headed to the bathroom while Nick got up and got dressed. Jeff took a shower and dressed in a blue dress shirt and dark shinny jeans. He got out of the bathroom ready to go down for breakfast. Nick stopped short when he saw Jeff's outfit. He looked amazing. "What?" Jeff said looking confused at Nick`s stair

"You`re beautiful Angel." Nick breathed. How could Jeff want him? Nick would never know, but he was so thankful that for some reason he did.

"Thanks, you cleaned up nice too." Jeff smiled at his boyfriend

"Boys, you ready?" The bobby called from the door.

"Yes, sir, we are." Nick said opening the door. He grabbed Jeff's hand. Jeff squeezed back nervously and they headed down for breakfast. This was it. The day his whole world got turned upside down. "Everything's going to be fine Angel." Nick said. "No matter what happens, you always have me and my family. Nothing can change that." He looked Jeff in the eye.

"You`re my family Nick, that`s not going to change. Not because of him or anyone else. I`m just nervous. What am I going to do, what am I going to say?"

"I know it's going to be awkward." Nick said. "I'll be right there with you though. And just do what feels right. Follow your heart."

"Alright" Jeff took deep breaths "so what is my dad`s name anyway?" He asked the bobby

"Williams, Marcus Williams" Jeff scrunched his nose. That was his actual last name?

"So, how does that work? I thought his last name was Sterling?" Nick asked, scrunching his nose too.

"No that`s my mum`s name, Éponine Sterling. She never got married so it just stayed like that, and I took after it." He smiled at his mum`s first name. He always liked it.

"She was named after the girl from Les Miserables?" Nick asked.

Jeff chuckled. "Yeah, Nana and Granddad were kind of the biggest musical fans ever."

"I learn something new about you every day." Nick said shaking his head with a smile. He kissed Jeff on the cheek.

"What about you? Where'd your name come from Nicky? Why did your parents decide to name you after a saint?"

"My mom's parents were really religious. Let's just say, they don't really talk to us anymore." Nick said.

"Oh, I'm sorry." There was a silent pause. Jeff really didn't know how to react to something like that. "I don't really think I'm named after someone"

"That's fine. And it's cool you didn't know. I was never really close to them." Nick said with a shrug. It was true he only ever saw them at Easter, and Christmas sometimes.

"What do you guys have for Christmas, food wise?" Jeff asked getting rather hungry waking into the cafe.

"We have turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, peas, stuffing, rolls, and a bunch of other stuff. And we invite my cousins and stuff over." Nick said.

They got up the counter and Jeff ordered for them both "Two stacks of pancakes please. What you want to drink Nicky?"

"Some coffee please, or tea if they don't have coffee" Nick said.

"Coffee and peach tea please." He said to the lady waiting them. She came back a few minutes later with the drinks with three British pancakes with fruit on top for each of them.

Nick took a bite of the pancakes. His face scrunched up. "These taste different."

"Do you like it?" Jeff asked chowing down his stack, feeling nostalgic and a little home sick as he did.

"Yeah, it's good." Nick said. "I just wasn't prepared for the difference. It would've been nice if someone...mm, say my boyfriend told me so I wasn't so shocked."

"I mentioned British pancakes were flatter and less sweet than American ones. Remember, when your mom served them before we left. Or were you too brain dead?"

"Apparently" Nick mumbled. He now vaguely remembered Jeff making some sort of comment like that. Jeff continued eating his pancakes, but couldn't shake the feeling that sometimes Nick just didn't listen to him. He shook it off and sipped his tea trying to think of a new topic.

"So shall we go then?" The Bobby asked rising from the table.

"Okay" Jeff was still nervous as they went next door to the station.

"Are we meeting here?" Nick asked the bobby.

"No, at his house at 7 dials"

"My dad lives on the west end?" Jeff asked surprised, the bobby nodded.

"Why do you seem so surprised Angel?" Nick asked.

"The west end is sort of the rich-y part of town. Not many people get to live there."

"Oh, that's interesting." Nick said. Not really knowing what he was supposed to say.

They got on the train and rode to the right stop. When they got off and walked for a bit and then entered 7 dials. Which was basically 7 roads that converted on a roundabout "It's like Hunger Games" Jeff joked.

Nick giggled at that. "I loved those books."

"Yeah they were good, wasn't a fan of all the killing though."

They entered a fancy looking apartment building.

"Come on, the Williams' apartment is on the 10th floor." The bobby said. Once they got there the bobby knocked on the door. Nick took Jeff's hand, and gave it a reassuring squeeze. Jeff held his breath as the door opened, but it wasn't his dad. It was a thin, older woman with faded cream colored hair, pale, wrinkled completion, and strong eyes that were probably bright at one point, but life sucked it out to make the blue look grey. His grandmother, Jeff assumed.

"Hello, ma' am." the bobby said. "We're looking for Marcus Williams."

"Yes, he said you'd be coming." She looked at Jeff as if to silently add 'with you.' "Do come in, my son will be down in a moment." They entered the residents as the women disappeared down the hall. Jeff looked at the pictures on the wall, which confirmed his worry. He indeed has step-siblings, four of them.

"Everything's alright, Jeffy." Nick whispered.

"I'm alright, just a lot to take in." Jeff held Nick's hand as he skimmed all of the photos of his family he never knew about. He had a step-mom and four step-siblings. Three younger boys, looking about 8, 9, and 10 and an older girl about 11. "Four kids, good lord...don't they have jobs?" He joked. Nick giggled, and even the bobby cracked a smile.

Jeff smiled and heard someone walking down the hallway. He was stunned and unable to move when his dad walked into sight. He was tall, slightly muscular, with dark brown/red hair, green eyes, pale complexion like his mother, and was wearing dress pants, shirt, and leather jacket. He looked about mid- 30`s.

"`Ello Jeff" he had an Irish ascent, which Jeff thought was kind of cool.

"Hi" he said softly. Nick wrapped an arm around Jeff's waist to show his support.

Jeff expected to be mad at him, yell at him for leaving, at least have an awkward introduction then talk about something random, or something to that effect. He never expected to get emotional. Especially get happy and hug him. But that`s what he did. He was real, and here. He didn`t have to pretend or imagine anymore. Nick watched with a smile as Jeff hugged his dad. He knew things were a long way from okay, but they would get there eventually. Marcus seemed shocked at the contact at first and didn't do anything. He came out of shock after a few seconds and tightly hugged Jeff back.

"Daddy" Jeff's youngest step-brother was peeking out from the corner watching in confusion. Nick smiled to himself. The child was adorable. Nick had always loved kids. He was only nervous about how the kids would feel about Jeff, and maybe...him.

Jeff turned to the child and smiled "Well hello there, my names Jeff." The boy just stared at him looking from his dad to Jeff to Nick.

The child ran to his dad, and then shyly said, "Hi." Jeff noticed the older boys staring to pop out their rooms too. He didn`t see the girl thought.

"Boys, come on out there is someone I want you to meet."

"But Mama said to stay in our room when he was here." The eldest one said

"Well I`m telling you to come out" Marcus said coaxing them. Nick frowned. He wondered why their mother had told them to stay in their room.

"Jeff, this is Ryland." He pointed to the youngest one with light brown/red hair. "Ross" the middle blond one, "and Rocky" the oldest boy with dark brown hair. Nick smiled those were nice names. He wondered where the girl was though.

"Nice to meet you three. I`m Jeff, and this is Nick." He said holding Nick`s hand again. The blond tried to be general about his introductions, Jeff didn`t know if Marcus told them he was their brother.

"Hi!" Nick said smiling. He gave Jeff's hand a squeeze.

"Boys, can one of get Rydel. I want her to meet him too." Rocky sped down the hallway and came back with the 11 year old blonde girl in tow. Nick looked at the girl, out of all of them she was the closest looking to Jeff, but you could see the similarities between her and the other boys too.

"Rydel, boys, this is Jeff. He`s your brother." Marcus said with a grin. Some of them gasped and some of them squealed. Jeff couldn`t depict who did what. They all sounded so similar. Nick smiled, well at least none of them screamed no. That was a positive sign right? Ryland walked closer to Jeff and just stared at him with his big 8-year-old brown doe eyes. Brown eyes, Jeff realized, they all had some shade of brown eyes-just like him.

"Step" someone corrected. Jeff spun around to see a women who was supposedly his step-mother. She had blond hair, brown eyes, wearing some dress that looked expensive, and carrying groceries. She set them down near the door and looked Jeff and Nick over. Nick instantly disliked the woman. She carried herself much too proudly for his liking. Nick knew her type rich people. Thought that they were all-that, and then some. He'd dealt with enough of them at Dalton. If she said so much as one thing to hurt Jeff, Nick was going for the kill then and there. He hoped Jeff could read his expression, just so he wasn't caught off guard at least.

Jeff tried not to be nervous, or at least not show he was intimidated by the women at the door. "Hello Ma`am" he held out his hand 'Okay Jeff be polite, the last thing you want is an evil step-mother on this trip' he thought. Nick could tell Jeff was nervous. He knew his boyfriend. He gave his hand another squeeze to let him know that he was right there, and he would do whatever he could to support him.

She shook his hand with what almost seemed like caution "Polite, I like it." She looked over to Nick "and who`s this?"

"I'm Nick." Nick stepped forward, and held his hand out for her to shake. Maybe she wasn't too bad. She shook Nick`s hand then moved to stand by her husband. Jeff was so caught up in meeting her that he almost forgot about Ryland who was still staring at him, did that boy ever blink?

"Why are you here?" Ryland asked.

"Oh, well..." How was he going to explain this to a child? "I just thought it was high time I met my dad is all." He looked at Marcus apologetically, but he didn`t know how to sugar coat the truth. He didn`t want to be the one to explain abuse to someone so young.

"Yep, and he wanted to show me England." Nick added.

"Yep, Nicky is American"

"`Mercian" Ryland said trying to pronounce it. The others just giggled.

"You guys want to sit down?" Marcus invited them to the couch while his wife made some tea. Nick decided that maybe Jeff's family wasn't so bad.

They talked for a long time about a lot of things; Jeff's life, the kid's life, where Jeff grew up, his interests. He swore his step-mom, (who was evidently named Karen) scowled when he said he wanted to be a writer. Nick sat by Jeff's side the whole entire time. He was rather proud of how his boyfriend was handling this. He had handled it a lot better than Nick had. At least it appeared that way.

"Jeff, can you come with me to the back room please. You can bring Nick too. I have something for you." Jeff nodded and tried to get up but, Ryland was still hanging on to him.

"Please, don't go Jeff. I want you to stay." Ryland said looking up at Jeff with his big eyes.

"I'll just be a minute Ry, promise." He loosened his grip on Jeff and he and Nick made their way to the back room which was filled with an array of instruments and pictures. Jeff started to look around, but there was so much stuff. You barely make out what the paint color was.

"Whoa" Nick said, looking around. He saw a bass in the corner, and his hands itched to grab it.

Oct 5"You can play around with the stuff on the open stands if you want. It's going to take me awhile to find what I'm looking for. I really need to organize the cabinets." Jeff laughed as he looked at the photos. There was one of Marcus at 18, and what looked like his band. He saw his mum in the corner of the picture, 16 and yet to be harmed by the world.

Nick looked at the picture Jeff had. "Is that your mom?" he asked.

"Yeah, around 16 I think." He whispered she looked a lot like him at his age, same blond hair, same smile, same skinniness, and same awkward stance. The big differences were that her eyes were more round and blue, and she was really short.

"So you got your eyes and your height from your dad." Nick said.

"Yeah, well the shape of the eye defiantly. I think I got the color from Nana." He started looking around at the instruments and spotted a cello in the corner. The thing looked dusty and for the most part unused.

Nick walked over to the bass he had seen earlier, and stroked it lovingly. It was beautiful, straight black and Nick was sure if you got the dust off it would shine. He looked at the brand name at the top it was a Fender. He thought about Jeff playing bass and sucked in a breath. That would be something Nick would love to see.

Jeff walked over to the cello and plucked some of the strings. Dust spewed off of them and snowed to the floor. He felt kind of bad for the instrument, just sitting here looking so unused and sad.

"It looks kind of human." He mumbled. It sounded crazy, but the shape of it, its size, and the almost skin color of the wood. He had a very vivid imagination.

Nick giggled. "You're so cute Jeffy." He smiled and blushed

"Well look at it" he placed his hand on the scroll and ran it down the finger board. "What was it you were looking at?"

"This bass" Nick said, pointing to the bass. "It's beautiful."

"Oh yeah" Marcus turned around. "Gary was my first bass, see." He pointed to the picture of him in his high school band. Jeff looked closer and there it was, hanging off his shoulder.

"It's very beautiful, Mr. Williams." Nick said. He's always loved instruments, even if he couldn't play them.

"Thank you, I was going to clean him and put him back in his case, but I ran out of time." He turned some of the pegs slowly. Jeff could only imagine all the memories Gary contained.

"So, are you glad we came?" Nick whispered to Jeff.

"Yeah, I`m really glad." He started humming the 'Glad You Came' song before snapping out of his day dream by a closing drawer door. "So you said you had something?"

"Oh yeah, sorry." He grabbed a picture he got out of the cabinet. "I did the math, and I wanted to give you a little something since you will be 16 in a little while." He handed it Jeff cautiously. It was Éponine, Marcus, and baby Jeff the day he was born.

"She said you left right after she told you about how- how are you here-i mean there?"

"We broke it off a few weeks into the pregnancy yes, but I still was there." Marcus swallowed a lump in his throat. "It was a lot more than just you okay? We were fighting, I was leaving for a different college, my parents, her parents... not just you." Nick held Jeff's had. He wanted Jeff to know he was there.

Jeff let his mind mauled over what he just heard he looked at the picture one more time. They both looked so happy yet tired, and then he was in his mum`s hands sleeping. He was so tiny and frail looking with blond fuzz on his head. "Thank you, for this"

Nick smiled at Jeff's expression. He loved this boy so much. He just wanted to stay with him forever, and then Nick knew what to get Jeff for his birthday. "Excuse me, I have to make a phone call real quick." He kissed Jeff's cheek and stepped out into the hallway. Jeff wondered who Nick might be calling, but he decided not to ask.

"So the cello in the corner, what it`s story?" Jeff asked, changing the topic between him and Marcus.

Nick waited for his mom to pick up.

"Hello?" she said.

"Mom," he said, "I know what I want to get Jeff..." he told her what he was thinking.

"Alright sweetie" Mom said. "Love you."

"Love you too, bye."

"It was Rydel`s. She was interested in it for about two weeks and that was it. That was the last time I bought her anything out of impulse. As you can see it hasn`t been touched since. There`re more into the other band type instruments.

"So why haven`t you taken it back or sold it?" Jeff asked

"I`m always cautious about getting rid of an instrument, the other may end up liking it... or something." Marcus smiled at Jeff`s longing look "You play?"

"A little." He handed Jeff the bow. Nick walked back in. He saw Jeff with the cello. He didn't know that Jeff played. Jeff ran the bow across the stings. A shiver went down his spine at the noise. It was beautiful. He saw Nick come back into the room "Who`d you call?"

"My mom" Nick said honestly.

Jeff scowled in confusion "What for?" He started to tune the strings as they were horribly off key, Rydel really must have not cared about it to leave it in this state.

"Just to ask her to pick something up" Nick said with a shrug.

"Okay" Jeff said, still not getting it. He finally got all four strings rightly tuned and started playing. It had been awhile since he played since the cello he used belonged to his old school, and Dalton didn`t have one to rent.

"Wow, you're really good Jeffy." Nick said.

"Thanks" Jeff blushed and continued trying to remember all the notes from piece he played at his last recital. Nick watched Jeff play. His boyfriend was beautiful. Jeff finished the short piece and smiled, hugging the cello to his chest. He didn`t want to leave it here to just sit and collect more dust. Nick's phone chimed with a text. It was from his mom. She said, "Got it." He smiled.

Jeff put the cello and the bow back on their respective stand in the sad little corner. "Thank you for letting me play, and this." He picked the picture back up and held it tight.

"You're welcome. You know you're very good" Marcus had a proud grin on his face. Jeff just looked down and blushed. Nick smiled he was so glad that things were working out.

The bobby poked his head in. "I'm afraid we have to leave." They made their way back out into the living room. As soon as Ryland saw Jeff he practically tackled him.

Nick chucked. "I think you have a little fan there Jeffy."

"Ryland, you're going to have to let go" Jeff really didn`t want to leave. He thought it was going to be easy meeting his dad then leaving right after, but now he didn`t want to.

"You can come back tomorrow as long as it's okay with the family." The bobby said. Nick looked at Jeff's dad and step-mom. Would they let them come back?

"Can we?" Jeff hesitantly asked them, more Karen than Marcus.

"I guess that would be okay." Karen said. Jeff put his arm around Nick`s and smiled excitedly. He liked his family and he wanted to know his step-siblings more. He wasn`t sure about Karen, but she seemed okay.

"It was very nice to meet you all." Nick said smiling. Then they left. "Jeffy, did you get your friends called?"

"Yeah, I called them when you`re parents were checking you out. They should be at the train station tomorrow."

"Okay cool. What are we doing for the rest of the day?" Nick said.

"Well, how do feel about Warner Brothers?"

"Sounds amazing" Nick said. He gave Jeff a quick kiss, simply because he could. Jeff smiled and led him out of the building by the hand. "Then let`s go to Hogwarts then, my little Ravenclaw."

"Gladly, my lovely Hufflepuff" Nick said giggling. They went down to the underground again and Jeff looked at the map to see what the closest station to the W.B. studio was.

"I'm so excited!" Nick said once they were going. "I love Harry Potter so much."

Oct 5"I know Nicky, us being fan boys is the reason we started to talk to each other remember?" Jeff giggled and placed his hand on his "plus J.K. Rowling got me into writing. So I pretty much have to thank her for everything good in my life."

"Hey!" Nick pouted. "I think I'm pretty good too."

"That's what I was saying... You and writing, we became friends because we got talking about Harry Potter, and those books got me into reading and writing my own. Are the dots connecting for you now?" Jeff held in a huff. Did Nick not listen at all when he was talking?

"I got what you meant Jeffy." Nick said. "I was just joking."

"Oh" Jeff looked down in embarrassment "sorry."

"You seemed upset. Care to tell me what's going on?" Nick asked grabbing Jeff's hand and threading their fingers together.

"I didn't realize you were joking so, it just seemed like you weren't listening to me, got kind of annoyed." Jeff ducked his head more. He got mad over nothing "I'm really sorry."

"I always listen to you, Jeffy." Nick said. "I just forget things easily. I have a really bad short term memory. Never feel like I don't listen to you angel. I always have, and I always will, until you stop speaking."

Jeff looked up a little and smiled "So I'm dating Dory then?" He laughed and kissed him on the cheek and snuggled in closer to him "thanks Nicky."

"I resent that very much." Nick pouted. "I'm not that bad, and anything for you Angel." Jeff was going to reply when he noticed the man next to him scowling at them.

"Um Sir, are you alright?" He asked politely as possible. Nick looked at the man too. He hadn't noticed him untill Jeff said something.

"Mind you own business" he was from a southern state that Jeff could pick out from his voice. The man mumbled something.

It started with F

And it almost made Jeff cry.

Nick looked at the map. They were about two blocks from Warner Bros. "Come on Jeffy." He said, pulling his boyfriend up. "We shouldn't lower ourselves to such company." He glared at the man, and they moved to where the doors were so they could get off at the next stop. Jeff was shell shocked. He'd heard about the mean things people could say about him from the internet, but he never actually heard someone say it to his face.

"Jeffy, are you okay?" Nick asked after they had gotten off.

"I've never heard someone actually say it before." Jeff squeaked out.

"Oh, Jeffy" Nick said, hugging his boyfriend. "Don't take what that guy said to heart. He's just some ignorant jerk who wanted to blow some steam."

Jeff hugged Nick back tight "If you say so." He smiled as the studio came in sight. "Now let's go have some fun. I need some wizard food and butter beer." The bobby gave them a weird look "don't worry. It doesn't actual have beer in it."

"Let's go!" Nick said. They quickened their pace, making sure they didn't leave the bobby behind. The line was a bit long but they finally got into the studio gate.

"I think I'm going to pass out." Nick said, excitedly.

"I know, it`s amazing" Jeff collected an activity passport for him and Nick, and they were on their way to the Hogwarts express.

"Oh my, gosh, Oh my, gosh, Oh my, gosh" Nick said, looking around. Jeff smiled at how happy Nick was he had to tug him around every so often because he knew to get through this whole thing they had to move quickly.

"That was so much fun!" Nick said when they got back to the room. Jeff was smiling until he saw the giant spider hanging from the wall. He squeaked and jumped back.

"Jeffy, what is it?" Nick asked worried.

Jeff pointed to the spider with a trebling hand. "Nicky, kill it, kill it, kill it!" Nick looked and saw a tiny spider. He smashed it, and turned to Jeff.

"Really Jeffy?"

Jeff hugged Nick tight, acting like he just saved his life "Thank you"

"What was that all about Angel? It's just a spider." Nick said.

"Just a spider-Nicky those are the scariest animals on the planet!"

Nick laughed. "You're scared of spiders? Jeffy, you're too cute."

He blushed deep red. "Yeah I know, arachnophobia. It's childish, but I can't get over how creepy they are. My cellar sucked massive." Jeff's stomach growled.

"I think someone's hungry." Nick said, laughing.

"Can we go to China town for dinner?"

"Sure." Nick said. "We have to get the bobby though." Jeff sighed and knocked on the door that connected the bobby's and their rooms.

"You boys need something?" the bobby asked.

"Is it okay if we go to China town for dinner?" He asked

"I don't see why not." The bobby said. Jeff jumped in excitement and grabbed his coat.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

"Nicky you are going to love this! There's this restaurant that's right across the street from a place that's sells retro video games and stuff and it's literally nerd heaven!"

"I thought I was in nerd heaven when I met you." Nick said in a cheesy tone.

"Aww stop it" Jeff's stomach growled again and this time it was painful. Jeff ignored it followed the bobby downstairs. He was quite good at that by now.

When they got to China Town Nick was in awe of all the little shops, and things scattered about. "It's so beautiful." he breathed.

Jeff smiled back "The only beautiful thing I see is you." Nick looked amazing in the glow of lanterns and sparklers. It made his hazel eyes sparkle.

Nick blushed. "Jeffy stop! I'm supposed to be the sappy one. You're going to make me cry." Jeff put his arm around Nick and led him into the restaurant. The smell if food was painfully intoxicating to him. Those hunger pains were harder to ignore than he remembered.

"What are we ordering? Or are we just going with a buffet?" the bobby asked.

"Buffet" he answered quickly "defiantly buffet."

"Alright let's go." the bobby said. He went and paid, and Nick started filling his plate. "Is Chinese food the same here?"

"I'm guessing since it's still Chinese people making it... Yeah something tells me you're asking the wrong person." Jeff started to fill his plate rapidly. He didn't even wait for them to find a table before he popped some popcorn shrimp in his mouth.

"Don't make yourself sick Angel." Nick said. He was happy that Jeff seemed to have an appetite though. He wasn't worried about him, but he did want his boyfriend to be healthy. Jeff smiled a fish filled grin and sat down and ate more slowly. No matter how hungry he was he had to pace how much his stomach held, or it would do what he trained it to. Get rid of it.

"So tomorrow we're going to meet your friends, and do something. Then the next day...are we going back to your father's?" Nick asked.

"I hope so. I want to spend more time with them before we leave. I really didn't expect to like them so much."

"Well, I'm glad you did. You followed your heart Jeffy." Nick said, smiling at him. Jeff held Nick's hand as he ate more fish and egg roll. They got talking about what sights they wanted to see in London and Jeff forgot his pacing completely. He started to taste bile and darted to the bathroom.

Nick followed Jeff to the bathroom. "Oh, Jeffy." He said rubbing his back,as he threw up. Jeff wiped his mouth and opened his eyes. He started sobbing at what he saw. Most of his dinner literally down the drain.

"Idiot" He yelled as he slammed the toilet shut out of anger. He was mad at himself, mad at his stupid body, mad at everything. They were having a good night and he ruined it.

"Jeff, calm down." Nick said. "This is going to happen. Your stomach is used to handling food anymore. It's just something we need to work on. Don't beat yourself up about it. You're perfect you know. Just the way you are. My angel" Nick pulled Jeff into his arms.

He buried his head in Nick's shoulder. "That could of been a pound Nicky I hate this, I hate it."

"I know Angel. I know." Nick soothed stroking Jeff's hair. "We'll just keep trying. Think positively. I love you, and I'll always be here for you, okay?"

"Okay" he blew his nose with toilet paper and flushed it all down. "Maybe we can try dinner again later, slower this time."

"That sounds fine." Nick said smiling. He kissed Jeff's forehead. "Now let's go find the bobby, so we can go back and you can brush your teeth so I can give you a proper kiss...and maybe a bit more." He winked at Jeff. He blushed and nodded, if it was going to be anything like last night, he needed to be back in that hotel room now.

They found the bobby and went back to the hotel. Jeff brushed his teeth and even rinsed with mouth wash.

"Okay I'm clean" He said getting out of the bathroom. Nick turned to his boyfriend and grinned. He ran to him and kissed him, hard. Jeff stumbled a little, but managed to keep his balance. He kissed back and placed his hands around Nick's neck.

"I love you so much." Nick said breaking the kiss.

"I love you more" Jeff said pressing his forehead to Nick's.

"That's impossible." Nick said, and leaned in for another kiss. Jeff kissed Nick back again and this time it was sweeter and slower. Nick moaned against Jeff's mouth. A shiver went down Jeff's spine at Nick's moan and he started melting. Nick start to make a mark on Jeff's collarbone.

"Nick, they'll see it." Jeff didn't want to deal with a hickey everyone could see. "You know those don't go away for weeks." He started to unbutton his dress shirt.

"I want everyone to see it." Nick whispered in Jeff's ear. He kissed behind his ear. Jeff smiled and slipped his shirt off his shoulders. Nick kissed down, and bit gently at the juncture between Jeff's neck and shoulder. Jeff flinched slightly at Nick's bite. If there was one fetish he was never going to have it was a pain one.

Nick noticed that Jeff flinched. "Too hard?" he asked.

"Mm hmm" Jeff nodded and kissed Nick on the forehead.

"Sorry." Nick blushed. "You just taste wonderful." He paused for a minute. "That sounded less creepy in my head."

"I bet it did" Jeff giggled. "Now I know you watch too much Twilight."

"Hey!" Nick said. "Fine we can just stop now." He sat on the bed, and pouted.

"Nicky" Jeff crawled on the bed and straddled him. "I'm sorry" he tried to look as sexy-cute as possible. Nick groaned. Jeff always knew how to get to him. He smiled and kissed Nick's nose and worked his way down making Nick moan again. Jeff placed butterfly kisses on his neck and slipped his hands up his shirt.

Nick moaned. "Jeffy."

"Yes?" Jeff outlined Nick's abs with his finger, he wished he has muscles like his.

"Do something" Nick whined.

Jeff slipped Nick's shirt off, then kissed his way down to his pants. He unbuttoned them and looked up for permission to tug them off. Nick nodded quickly. He wanted those pants off more than anything. Jeff got up and slipped Nick's pants off, then started on his own. Nick felt his underwear get tighter. Jeff tugged Nick's underwear down slowly. Nick moaned loudly, and then bit his lip. He remembered he bobby was in the next room, and the hotel walls didn`t look too thick. Jeff climbed back on to Nick's lap and pressed his clothed length against his. Nick moaned at the friction. So much, yet so little

"More Jeffy, please" Jeff lightly pushed on Nick's chest to make him go down flat on the bed. He slipped off his own blue boxers slowly.

"Jeffy!" Nick said. He knew Jeff was getting him back for last night. Jeff mischievously smiled then kissed him hard as he wrapped his hand around Nick's hard length and began to stroke it. Nick whimpered. It felt so good. Jeff licked Nick's lips as he stroked harder and faster. "Jeffy, I'm close." Nick said breathlessly. Jeff stroked faster as he opened his mouth and let Nick explore his mouth with his tongue. Nick saw white, and moaned. Jeff broke the kiss and grabbed some tissues from the bedside table so he could clean Nick up. "You just had to get me back didn't you?" Nick asked breathlessly.

"Yes, yes I did, now we collectively agree to undress each other faster right?"

"Mm, maybe" Nick said playfully. He winked at his boyfriend.

Jeff rolled his eyes "You're impossible." He said playfully as he laid his head on his chest and put Nick's arm around his lower waste.

"You love me anyway." Nick said.

"Very much so." He smiled and placed a kiss on Nick`s chest, wrapping his arms around his neck. Nick was starting to fall asleep. Jeff saw this and wanted to protest. He was still rock hard and a bit horny, but he knew it had been a long day for the both of them. He slowly reached down and stroked himself careful not to wake Nick.

Nick woke up the sun shining through the window. He groaned, and rolled over, hiding his face in Jeff's chest. Jeff woke up to Nick, with his arms still around his waist, moving them both to the side. Jeff squeaked as he almost fell off the bed.

Nick opened his eyes. "You okay Angel?"

"Yeah-yeah I'm okay just..." He looked over to see he was right on the edge. "Might want to move over, just a bit." He moved closer to Nick and put his arms around him again.

"Oh, I must've rolled in my sleep." Nick said, scooting over. "Sorry Angel."

"It`s okay" Jeff snuggled into him and smiled. He felt so warm.

"You are such a cuddlier." Nick said sleepily.

"Cause you're warm and snugly." His hands made his way down to Nick's shoulders and curiously outlined the muscles in his arm. "You're strong too." Nick shivered as Jeff traced the lines of muscle. His delicate fingers made his way down, carefully skipping his wrist, playing with his hands and comparing the sizes. Nick's hands were smaller with wider fingers, while Jeff had piano playing hands.

"You're so beautiful." Nick said. He knew that he told Jeff all the time. In fact Jeff was probably sick of hearing it. But Nick would tell him forever. Jeff looked down at himself. What did Nick see in him to call him beautiful?

"I just want to stay here all morning. Sound good to you?" Nick asked.

"That sounds wonderful. I could go for naked breakfast in bed later too." He linked their fingers together and grinned.

"You mean you don't want run up and down the street to get my attention?" Nick said, referencing the song Jeff had wrote about him.

"If you want me to get arrested"

Nick laughed. "Gosh, Jeff. How did I ever get lucky enough to get you?"

"You took care of me, you look past what I can't, you're sweet, charming, imperfectly perfect, and really freaking hot." He answered "how did I get you?"

"You think that you're so lucky, but I'm nothing special." Nick said, "You are the greatest prize in the universe. And I love you more than anything."

"I love you too Nicky, and you are special to me Love. You've stayed with me through everything so far, my uncle, my nightmares, this trip, I started to take recovery seriously because of you. I can't thank you enough for it."

"No need to thank me Angel, just keep being you. The boy I love." Nick said. He kissed Jeff's forehead.

Jeff closed his eyes and relaxed into the kiss. "Forget all morning, I want to stay like this all day."

"We're supposed to be seeing your friend's today Angel." Nick said, leaning in for another kiss.

Jeff sighed "I guess there is that"

"We can stay right here until then though." Nick said.

"Yes" Jeff exclaimed happily, and then his stomach growled "oh shut up you."

"I'll just order some room service. You get under the covers." Nick said kissing his forehead, and then hopping out of bed to dial room service.

"Okay" Jeff got under the covers and waited for Nick to finish.

"They said they'll bring it up." Nick said, crawling under the covers.

"What did you order. Pancakes again?"

"Yeah, sorry if you wanted something different." Nick blushed.

"No, pancakes are great." He placed his head on Nick's shoulder "How about tomorrow I make the pancakes? The pancakes here are fine, but I know a better recipe."

"You cook? Did you ever tell me that, because if you did sorry. Like you said yesterday, I'm Dory." Nick said.

"No, I don't think I mentioned it at all. I just never found the need to bring it up with the cafeteria and everything."

Oct 16"You know even with the cafeteria, you can still cook your own food...right?" Nick asked, giving him a weird look.

"We don't exactly have any cooking ingredients in our meter- I mean foot- long kitchen Nick. We just have snacks. Plus I'm lazy. I'll cook for you when we're at home though, okay?"

"Okay." Nick said with a shrug.

Someone knocked on the door "Room service!"

"Just leave it at the door" Jeff shouted quickly. He didn't want the guy walking in.

Nick giggled. "I'll go get it."

"Don't flash anyone Nicky" Jeff giggled out as he watched him walk to the door.

"I doubt anyone is out there, Jeffy." Nick said. He quickly pulled the cart back in the room.

Jeff laughed "You never know." He happily got up and got his share of pancakes from the cart.

"And remember to pace yourself this time Jeffy." Nick said. "I don't want you to get sick again." He kissed Jeff's temple.

Jeff nodded grimly and sat down. He was still mentally slapping himself for last night. He prepared his pancake and ate slowly and carefully.

"Stop beating yourself up over it. It happens to everyone." Nick said.

"Has it ever happened to you?" Jeff asked skeptical

"A long time ago" Nick admitted. He'd never even told his mother about this.

"You- you had an eating disorder?!" Jeff was stunned. How come Nick never mentioned it?

"I was in seventh grade. I had just figured out that I was gay." Nick said. "The first guy I ever had a crush on made a comment on my weight. I was young, and wanted to do anything to be with him. So I tried to make myself skinny. I never told anyone about it, not even my mom."

Jeff's mouth hung open "Nicky I... I don't know what to say." He put his hand over his "thank you for telling me that."

"You deserve to know." Nick said, looking Jeff in the eye. "I'm just glad you're not mad at me for keeping it from you."

"I know how hard it is to tell people." Jeff bit his lip contemplating if he should tell Nick the reason behind his disorder.

"I know that look Jeffy. You can tell me when you're ready. Just because I do something doesn't mean you have to." Nick said.

"No I want to it is just-well simply put, you're about to meet the reason in a couple hours"

Nick gave him a confused look. "One of your friends caused you to develop an eating disorder?"

"Well there was a lot that contributed to it, but him and the break up were the main ones." Jeff explained "and I wouldn't call Pete a friend, I tolerate him for Carries sake, but that's it." Jeff gritted his teeth "he was nice to me when he first transferred to our school, but then the break up happened and...He just..." His lip started to quiver

"It's okay Jeffy. We don't have to talk about it." Nick said, pulling his boyfriend to him. Jeff nodded, wiped his eyes dry and continued to eat his breakfast. "So Carrie's okay, Pete is to be tolerated for her sake and, secretly disliked, anything else I need to know?" Nick asked.

"T.J. is only 13, but skipped some grades. We became friends with him in theater. He's kind of our baby, so to speak."

Nick's face scrunched up. "Okay? If that's all I sadly think it's time to get dressed." Jeff groaned and removed the covers and walked over, with his hips lightly swaying, to put their plates back on the cart. "You want to take a shower first or should I?" He gave Nick a mischievous grin "or do you want to take one together?"

"Mm, last option please." Nick said, smiling. He kissed Jeff sweetly.

Jeff smiled into the kiss and started to play with Nick's hair. "Together it is."

Nick turned on the water. "Are we using hotel soaps and stuff, or did you bring yours? I forgot mine."

"I'll get them" he grabbed his shampoo and soap bar from his suit case. Nick felt the water and stepped in. The water was warm and made him shiver. Jeff put his stuff on the shower shelf and step in to the water with Nick. He relaxed under the warmth and let it run down his body.

"Turn around and I'll do your hair." Nick said. Jeff handed him his strawberry shampoo and turned so his back was facing him.

Nick opened the shampoo and smelled it. "So this is why you always smell so good."

"I have my ways." He chuckled as he waited for Nick to start. Nick started rubbing the soap into Jeff's hair. The silky strands sliding easily through his fingers. Jeff closed his eyes and tipped his head back, Nick fingers felt so relaxing against his scalp.

"Don't fall asleep on me Jeffy. I'm not sure I'll be able to catch you if you do." Nick said, finishing with the shampoo. He continued to massage Jeff's head.

"But it feels so nice" Jeff fake pouted and rinsed his head, making sure none of the lather got near his face.

"I know." Nick said. He gave Jeff a quick kiss.

"Turn around" Jeff squeezed some of the shampoo in his palm and got to work on Nick's brown head of hair.

"Mm that feels amazing." Nick said.

Jeff continued until the shampoo turned to lather. "Okay, you can rinse"

Nick moved under the water and rinsed his hair. A bit of soap got in his eyes. "Jeffy, can you hand me a washcloth or something?"

Jeff grabbed the washcloth from the self and handed it to him "You okay?"

"Yeah, just a little soap in my eyes" Nick said, blinking rapidly.

Jeff wiped Nick's hazel eyes clean carefully with the hot water soaked cloth "Better?" He asked when he stopped blinking so quickly.

"Yeah" Nick said. "Thanks." He kissed Jeff chastely.

"You're welcome" Jeff smiled and soaped up his hands to wash his body, he looked over to see Nick watching him.

"You are so beautiful." Nick said, for what felt like the hundredth time that day. He just couldn't help it. Whenever he thought it he had to say it. Jeff blushed and smiled as he continued to wash slowly down his body. "You know one day. You'll actually believe me when I tell you that." Nick said as he started to wash his own body.

"Yeah... one day" Jeff's words almost had a hopeful longing tone to them. He wanted to believe Nick but, he just didn't see it. No matter how hard he tried.

One day...

Nick wrapped his arms around Jeff, and held him for a minute. "We should get out of the shower. The bobby will be here soon." Nick mumbled, but he really didn't want to move.

"Yeah, probably should. We're starting to look like raisins." Jeff finished with the soap quickly and started to shave the hair that was "south of the boarder."

"You boys almost done in there or, are you having a repeat of last night?" The bobby called through the door.

"What!?" Jeff cried out his face red as the shampoo bottle.

"You boys should really learn to be quieter." The bobby said. Nick blushed, but winked at Jeff who was still bright red.

"Sorry" Jeff got redder at the wink and finished with his shower.

"You're so adorable, Jeffy." Nick said, chuckling as they got out of the shower. Jeff got out, dried off, and wrapped the towel loosely around his hips.

"I'll be in the hall way." the bobby said, and Nick heard the door close.

"Well that was embarrassing" Jeff said, still red as he slipped on his boxers.

"Are we just going to do nothing if somebody comments like this again, because we won't be doing anything until were like twenty." Nick said jokingly.

"I`m pretty sure Dalton walls are thicker than this."

"Um, I meant when we were home Angel. I mean are we just doing nothing during the summer?" Nick asked, his eyes sparkling happily, and his smile showed that he was teasing. He pulled on his jeans.

"No, we are not doing nothing. That would be absolute torture." Jeff slipped on his skinny jean and his fall out boy jumper.

"Okay, just checking." Nick said with a wink. "Because I don't think I could survive that long without you...ever."

"Me neither, we're too much of a tease for each other." He replied. He got on some socks and his converse and was ready to go out. Nick stuck his tongue out at his boyfriend, and they headed out the door.


	12. Chapter 12

**Hi guys! I know some of you have already read this chapter, but it wasn't finished when I posted it because of a misunderstanding. Anyway so this chapter does have more at the end. So...yeah! Love you penguins! ~Blackbird**

Chapter 12

Jeff was practically bouncing up and down by the time they got to the station.

"A bit excited, are we?" Nick laughed.

"Yeah, I haven`t seen these guys in mouths, and they finally get meet you!" Nick blushed. Jeff was excited for his friends to meet him? They headed into the train station where they were supposed to rendezvous. Jeff looked around for the three but, he couldn`t find them. He didn`t think it would be this hard with Carrie`s blond curly hair and T.J. `s flaming orange mop.

"Calm down, Angel, I'm sure they're here somewhere." Nick said, giving his hand a squeeze. "By the way, do any of them know about me? I mean I assume they do but..." His voice trailed off.

"Of course they do. I got a boyfriend and you think I`m not going to start flipping out?" Jeff laughed "actually kind of feel bad for them, the text I wrote was about a paragraph long."

"Did you tell them everything about me?!" Nick asked, teasingly.

"Not everything, just spazzed on the key pad about how we got together. Other than that I only talked about you when they asked."

"They asked about me?" Nick said. The idea that Jeff's friends asked about him was a foreign concept to Nick.

"Yeah, we`re kind of protective of each other when it comes to this, you should have seen me and Carrie when Tom mentioned he had a crush on a boy for the first time... yeah we were bad." Jeff laughed at the memory.

Nick caught sight of a curly head just to his right. "Jeffy, is that Carrie?"

Jeff turned and smiled, there his best friends stood. He grabbed Nick`s hand and raced over to them. Tom was the first one to spot them and started flipping out. Carrie ran and hugged Jeff. He embraced her back with one hand still holding Nick. She let go smiling and Tom practically tackled him, springing up on his shoulders crying. This time her had to let go of Nick`s hand to make sure the red head didn't fall off. Nick smiled at Jeff's friends. They really cared about Jeff, and that was all Nick could ask for. He was still a bit worried about Carrie. She was even more stunning in real life, but he trusted Jeff.

"Tom, you`re going to have to let go, seriously- I'm choking, not breathing." Tom finally let go and climbed down with his blue eyes still wet. He finally noticed Nick and grinned.

"Jeff, you never told me he was hot." Jeff squeezed the bridge of his nose and Carrie face palmed. He finally meets Nick and that`s what he chooses to say? Nick blushed. He didn't know what to say. No one other than Jeff had ever called him hot.

"Hi, you must be Nick" Carrie said trying to save the conversation "I`m Carrie Hope, sorry for Tom. He has yet to grow a filter." He stuck her hand out to shake and the thirteen-year-old just smiled wider.

"Yes, I'm Nick. It's nice to meet you." He said, shaking her hand. Carrie`s brown eyes gleamed as she looked from Nick to Jeff. Her best friend had changed a lot since she last saw him. When he left he was absolutely broken, but now he was more put together. Nick made him whole. She could see that as clear as day.

"So what are we doing?" Nick asked looking between everyone.

"Figured we could go sightseeing, show Nick around?"

"Sounds good. We just have to wait for Pete to come back from the bathroom" Carrie answered gleefully

"Oh, so he did come" Jeff said gritting his teeth, his bones tightening with the thought of having to deal with him all day

"Yep"

"Fantastic" sarcasm dripped from his statement. Either Carrie didn`t notice or she chose not to.

Nick squeezed his hand. "You can do this, Angel." He whispered.

"I hope so" Jeff whispered. No more than two seconds late he found himself being tackled from behind

"Long time no see" Pete ruffled Jeff`s hair then stood next to Carrie, while Jeff brushed his hair with his fingers. "Nice to see you again Blondie, still a skeleton I see." He poked at his arm, and by this point Jeff was steaming.

"Excuse us one minute." Nick said, leading Jeff to the bathroom. "Calm down Angel." Nick said once they were in the bathroom.

"But you see why I don`t like him right? He`s absolutely intolerable, has no respect for anyone`s feelings except Carrie`s, he teases me about everything he can. He`s impossible!"

"Some people are just like that Jeffy." Nick said. "I'm not overly fond of him either so far, but there's not much we can do."

Jeff took a deep breath to calm himself down "Jesus, Mary, and Joseph if I get through this day..." He left the statement to open air and took another breath.

"Let's go, Jeffy." Nick said, smiling at his boyfriend. They walked out of the bathroom.

Jeff got back to the group with a smile, he was glad Nick was there "So, what do you guys want to see first?"

"I...have no idea." Nick said when all Jeff's friends looked at him.

"You`re a Potterhead right? Why don`t we start with Kings cross?" Carrie suggested

"How about it, Love?" Jeff said smiling at him.

"Sounds great" Nick said, smiling once more. They got on the tube to Kings Cross and immediately went to platform 9 3/4

"It's so beautiful." Nick said. "And I have my Draco to protect me." He cuddled into Jeff.

"I think you mean Cedric Diggory, Jeff's too sweet to be a Slytherin" Tom said.

"I don't know." Nick said. "He looks more like Draco. Maybe he's Scorpius. We have no idea which house he ended up in."

"I'd wish Joe would write a series on them. That would be awesome!" Jeff exclaimed. He really wanted more of the characters he'd loved since he was little.

"Yeah, it would!" Nick said. "It could be like a Hogwarts continued thing! With Scorpius, and Albus, and James, and Lily! It would be amazing."

"I like him already." Carrie said as they got in the line for the fake platform. "If it were to happen, it wouldn't be anytime soon. She's too busy with Fantastic Beasts. Maybe you could write it Jeff."

"Yeah, Angel you should." Nick said, "at least for us to read." His gaze sparkling at his boyfriend.

"Angel?" Pete questioned the nickname, Carrie just grinned at how sweet it was, and Tom just cocked his head in curiosity.

"Jeff is my angel." Nick simply replied.

"That's adorable" Pete spat

"You guys are so cute" Jeff smiled at Carries comment then looked over at Tom, he was being quiet. He never, in the three years Jeff knew him, was quiet. What was bothering him so much?

"Look we're almost at the end if the queue." Jeff exclaimed

Nick's dislike of Pete was growing stronger by the minute. Maybe soon Jeff would be dragging Nick somewhere to cool off instead of vice versa. They finally got to the platform. Jeff took hold of Nick's hand and wrapped the Ravenclaw scarf around him while he took the Hufflepuff. Nick smiled, and gave Jeff a quick kiss. Jeff kissed Nick back and they took a few photos of them trying to get on the platform. The others joined them after a few pictures Carrie grabbed the Gryffindor scarf, Pete the Slytherin (big surprise there), and Jeff wrapped his scarf around Tom.

Nick watched Jeff with his friends. It was so nice to see him so happy and carefree. He noticed that Tom seemed to watch every move Jeff made. He thought he could tell what the problem was, but he wasn't going to say anything. Plus, he had enough to worry about with Pete.

They took a few pictures as a group then placed the scarfs back on the rack for the other people in line. "That was fun"

"Yeah it was." Nick said. He grabbed Jeff's hand and gave it a squeeze.

"So, what do you want to see now?" Jeff looked to Nick, then his friends for places to go.

"I would love to see Big Ben." Nick said.

"To Elizabeth tower we go" Jeff said happily skipping to the underground map.

"Your friends seem really nice." Nick whispered as they started walking.

"They're probably the nicest people I've met in England so far." Jeff looked back at Carrie and Tom smiling.

"I don't think Tom likes me much though." Nick said with a frown.

"Why do you say that?" Tom never seemed to act normally around Nick as anybody to Jeff.

"I don't know. He just seems a bit off around me." Nick said with a shrug.

"He use to get bullied so he`s not the greatest with meeting new people" Jeff explained "just give him a chance to warm up to you."

"Okay." Nick said.

"Did you suspect something else?" Jeff questioned

"I just think..." Nick lowered his voice even more. "He might have a crush on you."

"Oh" was all Jeff could say, it didn`t make any sense, yet it kind of did.

"I'm not trying to make things uncomfortable, Jeffy." Nick said, feeling bad for saying something.

"You didn`t, it`s just that I never saw him in a romantic kind of way. I always treated him as well... my baby. It sounds kind of weird doesn't it?"

"No, I get what you mean."

"Okay good, right now let's not worry about it. We have too much to see." They got on the tube to take them to Big Ben

"Wow, it's so much bigger than I thought." Nick said when they got there.

"It's London, city of industrialization, everything's big here." Tom pointed out.

"How big were you thinking it was going to be?" Carrie asked

"I don't know." Nick said, shrugging. "Everything where I'm from isn't very big.

"You're from the same city as that prep-school you both go to right?" Pete asked

"Yep Westerville, Ohio the town layout is more like Berkshire." Jeff answered for him

"What Jeffy said." Nick said, nodding.

"I like your ascent by the way." Carrie said as she joined hands with Pete and went inside the tower.

"Thanks." Nick said, smiling. It was strange to be told he had an accent though. He smiled when he remembered when Jeff first came to Dalton.

"You're welcome" Carrie was so polite, it amazed him how someone so sweet could end up with someone as inconsiderate as Pete.

"What are you smiling about?" He asked with a grin

"Just thinking about when I first met you." Nick said gazing at him lovingly.

"What was so great about that? I came into that room a nervous wreck."

"You were so cute." Nick said, staring into the distance. "I was so excited to meet you, and then you spoke and the first thing I thought was that accent is going to be the death of me."

"Thanks Nicky, I liked yours too."

Nick smiled again, and shook his head. He leaned his head on Jeff's shoulder for a moment, before he lifted it and whispered in his ear. "I love you."

"Love you more." He whispered as they climbed up to the museum part of the tower. Just above them were the faces of the clock.

"Whoa!" Nick said, looking around.

"Yeah, this is pretty cool." Jeff said looking at all four of the faces usually saw on the outside.

"Come on slow pokes! You want to see Big Ben or not?" Tom called as he bolted up more stairs to see the 13 1/2 ton bell

Nick laughed. "Come on Jeffy. We wouldn't want to slow down your friends."

"Okay which one of you guys gave him sugar!?" Jeff called out as he began the climb with Nick, Tom was already at the top and Carrie and Pete where 1/3 of the way up. Nick laughed at Jeff's accusation, and continued climbing.

"There he is, Big Ben" Jeff said as the gray bell came into view, with the big crack on the side

"It's huge!" Nick said. He'd never seen a bell so big. Even the Liberty Bell, which he'd seen on a class field trip wasn't as big as this.

"Second largest bell in the British Isles" Tom was going around reading every piece of information his eyes could catch.

"It's incredible something like this can last 150 years." Jeff said in awe looking at the crack that resulted in the famous chime.

"Yeah" Nick said "history is so amazing."

"So, what do you Americans do for Halloween?" Pete asked randomly as they made the long journey down.

"We dress up and go door to door collecting candy, or we have parties with our friends. It really just depends on the person. Most of the time it's just the kids that go door to door, but teenagers do it sometimes." Nick said, wondering why Pete wanted to know.

"Yeah, didn't Blaine say something about a Halloween party?" Jeff was excited for his first Dalton party. Everyone kept saying they were really fun and crazy.

"Yeah, they're an annual thing." Nick said. "They get a little too crazy for me most of the time. I usually leave early."

"Sounds fun to me" Pete chuckled "got a costume Blondie?"

"I- have a vague idea of what I want to do." Jeff said trying not to give anything away to Nick. He didn`t want him to see his costume until the party.

"I'm sure whatever it is will be great." Nick said, smiling at Jeff. His stomach grumbled. "Now how about some lunch? I don't know about you guys, but I'm starving."

"How about the Sherlock Holmes place?" Tom said, his stomach making it self-known too.

"Whatever's fine with me?" Nick said. "You guys know more about here than I do."

"Okay, Sherlock Holmes it is." Jeff said finally get to the bottom of the steps to the tower he took a few tired breaths "and this time let`s take a cab, please." Nick kissed Jeff's cheek Jeff smiled and kissed him back as he opened and held the door to go outside the tower.

"Why thank you my good man" Nick said, walking out the door. He winked at Jeff.

Jeff just rolled his eyes as he gave the door to Pete, making him hold it instead. He looked around for a black taxi, which was harder than the bright yellow ones in America. Nick took Jeff's hand back in his. Jeff squeezed back and whistled, a good New York City worthy whistle to get the attention of a cabbie. Nick raised his eyebrows. His boyfriends never ceased to surprise and amaze him. They all got into the cab and buckled in.

"Where're we heading?" the cab driver asked, they all looked to Pete since he was the one from London

"The Sherlock Holmes, 10-11 North Umberland Street please"

Nick sat between Jeff and Pete in the taxi. He leaned into his boyfriend, wanting to be as far from the other boy as he could. Jeff tried to hide his grin at Nick`s movements. They sat in silence as the cab took them to the restaurant. When they got there Nick ordered the Mycroft's Roasted Herbed Chicken. Jeff had The Retired Colourman`s Fish and Chips, Carrie had the vegetarian version of Mary Sunderland`s Cumberland Sausage, Tom had Moriaty`s Beef Burger, and Pete had Sherlock`s Own Favorite Sirloin Steak.

"It`s cool that each character has a meal" Jeff said biting into his fish.

"Yeah, it's kind of awesome. They should do this with like a Doctor Who themed restaurant or something." Nick said, taking another bite of his sandwich.

"I support this, I support this so much" Carrie said fangirling

"I would eat there every day of my life. I don`t care how fat I`d get!" Tom exclaimed

Nick laughed. "I can see why you like them so much Jeffy. They're very smart people." He finished his sandwich, and the waitress came and took his plate.

"Yeah, I know" Jeff said, still finishing his dinner being the last one to finish their plate.

Nick sat, grabbed Jeff's free hand, and gave it a squeeze. Jeff finally finished and the waitress handed them the bill. They paid and walked out.

"Alright, next we should go to BBC." Nick said his mind was now stuck on Doctor Who. All four of them smiled and nodded excitedly, they haled another cab and went to BBC studios. "I think I've died." Nick squealed as they walked into the building.

"Don't die Nicky, I need you for later." Jeff joked as they looked around. "I want to work here now."

"No! You can't leave me." Nick said, attaching himself to Jeff.

"Nick I'm kidding, I want to become an author remember? Plus if I ever worked here it'd be after Uni."

"I know. I just like being overly dramatic." Nick said, giving Jeff a kiss on the cheek before he let go. Jeff giggled as they followed the tour. Nick did bring up a good point, what was he going to do after high school? He knew he had to go to Uni or College, but what if Nick went to a different one? Did Jeff even bother to ask what Nick wanted to do with life career wise? Nick noticed that Jeff looked deep in thought. He'd have to talk to him later.

Jeff's trail of thought was lost when they got to the T.A.R.D.I.S. set. Nick squealed.

"It's so- it's so" Jeff stressed to find the right word.

"Breathtaking" Tom said with his blue eyes practically bugging out of his little head.

"Yeah" Nick said finding his voice. They all just stared at the set smiling like idiots for a few moments. Nick didn't want to leave, but they had to see the rest of the studio. So he begrudgingly followed the others.

"I don't want to go" Jeff said as they exited the police box set

"We have to see the rest of the studio before it closes Angel." Nick said, he leaned over and whispered in Jeff's ear. "And then you and I have a date with a hotel room."

"I was doing the whole 10th Doctor thing, but yeah." Jeff said blushing "and I was planning on you and me taking the train to Berkshire and staying there for the night. There's still someone I want you to meet."

"Oh?" Nick asked. "And I probably should've guessed about the 10th Doctor thing. I feel disappointed in myself."

"You're not expected to know everything Nicky."

They finished the tour with smiles all around.

"That was so much fun! It makes me want to dress up like them again." Carrie said

"Yeah, that was a fun Halloween." Jeff said feeling nostalgic

"You guys dressed up as Doctor Who characters for Halloween? Man, I wish I could've met you sooner, Angel." Nick said, smiling.

"Yeah Carrie was River Song, Pete was Jack Harkness, I was the 10th Doctor" Tom announced proudly "and Jeff was a gender bent Rose Tyler." Jeff blushed horribly red.

"Oh my, gosh Jeffy!" Nick squealed, happily. "You would've been so adorable. I demand to see pictures."

"I'll send them if you send me this years' costumes. I still need a lot more faces to names."

"I don't know Carrie I-"

"Jeffery Samuel Sterling you better send me them, or I will murder you! You here me." Carrie jokingly demanded. Sarcasm was spilling from her statement, but Jeff still blushed and looked down at the mention of his middle name.

"Alright, alright I'll do it."

"Samuel?" Nick whispered.

"Yeah, my grandparents were Catholic and they agreed to help Mum with taking care of me so, she let them pick out the name. I stayed with them a lot during work hours."

"That's why he always says 'Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.' It's weird, I know." Carrie added

"Hey!"

"I think it's adorable." Nick said.

"Thank you, Nicky." Jeff said proudly, apparently he didn't get this very often. Nick laughed, and kissed Jeff's cheek.

"Well, the train is leaving in an hour. We'd better get to the hotel if we want to catch it." Jeff said looking at his watch

"What all do I need to pack?" Nick asked. "And is the bobby going to allow this?"

"Yeah I talked with him beforehand. He said it was fine. Once we get there we go to another hotel, meet who I want to meet, stay there for the night and morning then go back to the airport to leave. My family should be with us at the airport until we leave." Jeff paused to let the new schedule sink in "is that okay?"

"Yeah, as long as I'm with you I don't care. You could drag me to Siberia if you wanted to you. I just want to be with you." Nick smiled.

"You two would get arrested once you took one step in Russia." Pete said with a grin. Jeff just rolled his eyes at his stupidity.

"Thanks, I feel the same way." He kissed Nick on the cheek "but yeah we're not going to Russia... ever."

"Just an analogy, Angel" Nick assured.

They arrived back at the hotel and Nick packed his stuff. Jeff packed all of his stuff, making sure he got everything from the bedroom and bathroom.

"Alright I'm ready, how about you?"

"All set." Nick said. "Let's head out." Jeff, Nick, and the Bobby all got to the station, climbing on the train in the nick of time and sitting with the three on their way home. It was going to be a long trip. An hour in and Nick's eyes started to flutter closed. He shook his head. He refused to fall asleep.

"You can go to sleep if you want Nicky" Jeff said putting his arm around him. Nick snuggled against Jeff, and fell asleep listening to his heart beat. Jeff smiled at Nick's sleeping form and continued to read his book happily.

Nick blinked sleepily when he felt someone shaking his shoulder. "Are we there?"

"No but, it's Tom. Pete said something. I don't know exactly what happened, I was asleep too." Jeff sniffed and continued "Nicky we can't find him anywhere." Worry painted and dripping all over his face.

"Oh, Jeffy, come here." Nicky said, pulling his boyfriend into a hug. "We'll find him."

"Help me search please, I don't even know where to start on a big train like this" Jeff pleaded. "He could be anywhere."

"Alright, let's start at the back, and work our way forward." Nick said. He was worried, but one of them had to be calm, and it definitely wasn't going to be Jeff.

Jeff nodded trying to clear his head. They made their way to the caboose and started looking into every nook and cranny of the cars. They had made it half way through the train by the time they finally found Tom. He was curled up in a bathroom cubical, and the only reason they found him is because they heard his crying.

"Tom?" Jeff tried to get him to come out but, so far no luck "Tommy, please could you just tell me what happened?"

Nick stood by Jeff. "Please, Tom we won't judge anything that you have to say. We just want to make sure you're okay." Jeff saw the lock go from 'occupied' to 'unoccupied.' He opened the door slowly to see the red head on the ground, his crystal eyes red and puffy. Jeff didn`t say anything he just sat next to him and scooped him up in his arms.

Nick sat a little ways away. He didn't want to feel like he was invading anything, but he did want to be there for Tom, and Jeff. He definitely understood what Jeff meant about feeling like Tom was his baby. Nick hadn't even known him one day, and he felt it too. Jeff let Tom sob on his shoulder for what felt like forever, and then he finally started to calm down. That, or he simply ran out of tears.

Nick scooted a little closer. "What happened Tommy?"

"Pete said something and I lost it" Tom answered simply.

"What did he say?" Nick asked. He really didn't like Pete to much right now.

"I know he was joking but... still hurt"

"What did he say Tom?" Jeff asked a little more firm this time. Nick put a hand on the boy's knee, letting him know that someone was there. Tom looked up at Nick, took a breath then finally began speaking.

"He joked about Ashley"

"Who?" Jeff said confused, he didn`t recognize the name.

"Aston, he`s Ashley now"

"Oh" Jeff said feeling stupid. Nick looked at Jeff blankly. "So your boyfriend`s your girlfriend now?" Tom nodded wiping his eyes dry

Understanding dawned on Nick. "So Pete said something about Ashley?"

"Mm hmm" Tom said completely dry, but his eyes still puffy

"Oh Honey, don't pay any attention to what he says." Nick said. "There are always going to be huge jerks in this world. Pete is just trying to make himself feel better. Don't let him see that it affects you."

Tom suddenly hugged Nick "Thank you" they heard the whistle singling the ride was almost over.

"We better get back." Nick said, hugging Tom. He smiled at Jeff over the younger boy, and winked. "Don't want anyone to worry about us." Jeff smiled and led them both back to the booth. Luckily Pete was nowhere to be found. The train stopped, and Nick started grabbing his bags. Jeff picked up his stuff and they got off the train with a smile.

"So where are we going?" Nick asked.

"Hotel first, then you get to meet someone"

"Okay, lead on my beautiful angel." Nick said.

"I`ll catch up with you guys tomorrow okay?"

"See you Tom" Jeff waved as he and Carrie headed toward home. "Alright now let`s go!" Nick followed Jeff to the hotel. Jeff put his stuff near the bed and flopped on it, he never realized how much the train ride took out of him.

"Well, that was certainly eventful." Nick said, flopping next to him. "I kind of wish I'd heard what Pete said, so I had a reason to deck him."

"Knowing him probably some off hand sexual joke" Jeff said rolling so he sat on his backside. "What`s decking?"

"Punching" Nick clarified.

"Oh" he paused to yawn "Please do, and please have someone film it" Jeff said with a new found grin.

Nick chuckled. "Only if he gives me reason to Angel, now let's go to sleep. We can do whatever you want in the morning."

"No Nick this has to be done today, we won`t have time tomorrow we`re leaving at noon and Carrie wants to do a birthday thing then." Jeff pleaded finding new energy "It`s not even dark out anyways and, we need dinner."

"Okay" Nick said. "I just don't want you wearing yourself out."

"I'll be fine once I've had a shower, trust me" Jeff pecked him on the cheek. "Want to join me or no?"

"I'm never one to pass up a shower with the hottest angel I've ever met." Nick said with a wink.

"You've met other angels? How scandalous" Jeff joked as he turned the water on and slipped off his shirt. He looked himself in the mirror, still getting use to the marks Nick left on his hips.

"No, just you. I don't need any others." Nick said. He looked at Jeff, who was looking in the mirror. "You okay?"

"Huh, oh yeah I'm just not use to seeing these yet." He unbuttoned his pants and slipped them down to reveal a couple more love bites near his underwear band.

"Oh" Nick said. "Your V is just so sexy." Jeff blushed but smiled at his remark.

He slipped his underwear down slowly. "You going to join? We`re wasting water?" Jeff let his hips sway as the room filled with steam. Nick swallowed hard, and followed Jeff into the shower. Jeff immediately started to wash his blonde hair, rinsed then soaped up his body slowly.

"Jeff move any more slowly, and we're going to be here a while." Nick said, as he worked on rinsing out his hair.

"Alright, alright" Jeff finished soaping himself up and washed off the suds. Nick washed his body, and got dressed. Jeff dressed in a dress shirt instead of his jumper, and put his pants back on

"You ready?"

"Whenever you are" Nick said. He had gone without a sweatshirt.

Jeff led Nick by the hand out the door to the lobby and down the street.

He stayed quiet for most of the walk until he said. "Nicky, can you close your eyes? I want this to be a surprise." Nick gave Jeff a strange look, but closed his eyes anyway. Jeff led Nick carefully down the little stretch of pavement until he saw the 'Reading Old Cemetery' sign. He led Nick silently up the hill to wear his Mum was "Okay you can open up."

Nick opened his eyes, and they grew misty "Oh, Jeffy."

Jeff wrapped his arm around Nick`s "I wanted you to see her... just once" Jeff stared at the ground, still fairly new with dirt and barley growing grass.

"Hello, Ms. Sterling." Nick said, "I'm Nick. I'm Jeff's boyfriend. As I'm sure you are well aware your son is the best thing on the face of the earth, and I can never thank you enough for giving him to me. I know you may not be here, but you'll always be here in Jeff's heart, and in mine. I promise I'll treasure him always, Ms. Sterling. He's worth more to me than everything in the world." Jeff sat down next to the stone slab, tracing the inscription with his finger. He got as far as the end date, August 5th and started sniffing,

Two months, two long months without any parental love at all. It felt so raw, Jeff bit his lip and let his bangs cover his face.

"Oh, Angel" Nick said, wrapping Jeff in his arms.

"Nana and Papa are over there." He pointed to the two stones to the left of them.

"Your grandparents" Nick said, stroking the blonde's hair.

"Yeah" Jeff smiled at the memories he had of them when he was little "they influenced me quite a lot, say for the homosexuality thing... And the sex before marriage." He mumbled the last part.

Nick raised his eyebrows. "What was that last part, Jeffy?"

"Sex before marriage" Jeff looked down. He didn't want to talk about his first time, especially since it wasn't with Nick.

Dec 7"You've had sex before?" Nick asked. He assumed it was probably Carrie. It bothered him slightly, but Carrie was a girl, it was different. And even though it wasn't what Nick had expected, it didn't change Jeff in Nick's eyes. Nothing he could say would.

"Yeah with Carrie, but you know that's- a whole different thing- you know what forget I said anything."

"Jeff, it doesn't matter. Nothing you say can change the fact that I love you." Nick said. He gave Jeff a kiss just to prove his point.

Jeff kissed back with a smile. "Thanks Nicky it wouldn't change anything between us if you did either." Jeff snuggled against him lovingly "you haven't... right?"

Nick chuckled, "No, only done what we've done. Been asked before, many times, but never done anything."

"Many times eh?" The blonde joked

"I used to hang out at the gay bar in Westerville a lot." Nick mumbled blushing.

"How, I thought the drinking age was 21 over there?"

"It is. My cousin got me a fake I.D." Nick said.

"Really, huh, how many cousins do you have anyways?" Jeff questioned, he hadn't heard much about Nick's family.

"Five, four on my mother's side and one on my dad's, both my parents only have one sibling. They're both sisters, my mom's sister Catherine lives in California with James, Kenzie, Eliana, and Addison. My dad's sister Jean lives in Lima with my cousin, Kate. Kate is the one that gave me the I.D." Nick said, as they started walking back toward the hotel.

"I wonder if I have any cousins in my dad's side." He pondered "I'll have to ask tomorrow."

"Yeah, that'll be nice." Nick said. They reached the hotel "Ready to go inside?"

Jeff took a deep breath "Yeah, I'm ready" he opened the door and soon as Jeff walked in he was on the bed, completely hammered.

"Bedtime, Angel" Nick said, but he saw that Jeff was already out. He chuckled, and got ready for bed before climbing into bed and falling asleep with Jeff in his arms.

Jeff woke up curled up to Nick, feeling warm and safe, yet it was still pitch black out. He looked over at the clock-4 Am.

Nick felt something moving next to him. He opened his eyes and saw Jeff stirring in bed "You alright Angel?"

"Yeah" Jeff felt his bladder punch him "just one second." he felt his way to the toilet, relieved himself, and then crawled back into bed.

"My full bladder woke me up me guess. I`m glad it did, I don`t want to repeat what happened at the hospital."

"I already told you, it wasn't that bad." Nick said, giving his boyfriend a squeeze. "Now let's go back to sleep. We have to get up in a couple hours to get back to London." He nodded and snuggled back up to Nick`s chest, Jeff was sawing logs again in minutes. Nick shook his head at his boyfriend's adorable snoring, and tried to go back to sleep himself, but he found he couldn't. So, he laid there and played with Jeff's hair just thinking and cuddling. Jeff started to stir in his sleep, gripping the sheets and pillow underneath him. Soon he was whimpering and crying in his sleep, he was having a nightmare again.

"Jeffy, Angel, wake up." Nick said, trying to get him to wake up. He hated seeing Jeff upset even if it was a dream that upset him.

Jeff was trapped; he was in a constricting box, walls getting smaller and smaller. He started to hyperventilate, desperate to stop the walls from crushing him "Let me out!" Was all he could scream, this was dream, a nightmare, he knew that. Problem was he had no idea how to wake up.

"Jeff wake-up!" Nick said, shaking him harder. He had no idea what to do. He was starting to panic but, he couldn't do anything about that now he had to get Jeff to wake up "wake-up, Jeffy. Please."

The walls started to crack, light shown through the box. Jeff hit the walls harder and they finally broke.

Jeff's eyes shot open, he quickly looked around to confirm he was awake.

"Jeffy!" Nick said, breaking down into tears. He clung to Jeff. Jeff staggered as Nick clung to him. He had no idea what was happening

"Nicky, what happened?"

"You…you were having a bad dream and you wouldn't wake up." Nick said, in between sobs. He hugged Jeff even tighter, tears running down his face. "I thought you weren't going to ever wake up." He added quietly. Jeff hugged Nick tight. He didn't know what to say he couldn't apologize; none of it was his fault... right? "Don't let me go." Nick said, still sobbing. He didn't even know why he was so upset. It had been scary when Jeff wouldn't wake up, but Nick was so emotional. He didn't know what was wrong with him.

"Hey, it's alright, I'm right here" Jeff rubbed Nick's back trying to calm him down. Nick just couldn't seem to stop crying. Logically, he knew that Jeff was okay. He was awake and everything was okay, but all Nick could think about was how Jeff wouldn't wake up. How he thought that Jeff was going to leave. He started breathing heavily. "Nicky please I'm right here." He was desperate now. He couldn't get Nick to calm down, if anything he just seemed to make it worse. "Nick look at me" Jeff tilted his head by the chin so he was looking him in the eye. Nick looked at Jeff panic and tears still in his eyes. Jeff swallowed his desperation "I calmed down when I found you on the floor bleeding, you can calm down after a nightmare okay, please!" He said a little more firm

"I'm trying." Nick sniffled. "All I can think about is you not waking up." He sniffled between each word.

"I know Love, I know" he grabbed tissues from the nightstand "blow."

Nick blew his nose, and threw out the tissue. He cuddled back into Jeff's side, calm but still shaken. "Don't ever leave me. I don't think I could live without you."

"Me neither" He put his arms around Nick's neck then kissed him "I'll be by your side until the day I die. I can promise you that."

"Can I ask for a better proposal later?" Nick asked playfully.

"Hey, I thought that was pretty good" Jeff fake pouted at his boyfriend.

"Yes, with me having just got over a panic attack and hysterics. I'm sure it looked lovely, such a great story for the kids." Nick said rolling his eyes, lovingly.

Jeff scoffed "What do you want me to say then?"

"I don't know. I want something romantic." Nick said.

"Staying with you until death isn't romantic?"

"Of course it is," Nick said. "Can we get the ring when we get home though?"

Jeff rolled his eyes and chuckled "Very funny." He kissed the top of his head and snuggled into his chest again "that was a joke right?"

"You tell me." Nick said, thinking of his birthday present for Jeff.

"Um... I'm hoping because were only in 10th grade, not to mention it wouldn't be legal until 18." Jeff responded awkwardly he wanted to be with Nick, but he wasn't ready to be engaged at such a young age. "Did you mention kids?"

"Jeffy, chill, I'm not saying that we're getting married tomorrow. I'm just saying sometime in the future." Nick said, kissing Jeff's forehead "and I hope we could have kids someday."

"Sometime in the future with you sounds fantastic, like college maybe or, right after?" Jeff imagined marrying Nick and smiled "and then maybe we could adopt, save a kid from Africa or Latin America?"

"Probably before college or maybe during" Nick said, "and that sounds wonderful. I've seen some adorable children from Ethiopia."

Jeff smile "That sound great for a life plan made up at 6am."

"Yeah, we should add more some other time." Nick said with a yawn.

"We defiantly will" Jeff put his hands on his chest and started to drift off. Nick stayed awake for a while even after Jeff drifted off. Once he felt satisfied that he wasn't going to have another nightmare, Nick let himself slip into dreamland.


End file.
